Previous post
Three years ago, the American Girl doll company introduced a version of the doll who was deaf/had hearing loss. Because I am an evil troll, my first thought upon reading the announcement was, “Wait a minute, the other dolls can hear?”. I had the same evil troll-type thoughts when I read that Mas, Inc. the parent company behind M&Ms was introducing a “Flip the Status Quo” promotion featuring an all-girl package of M&M’s. Spare me, Lord Jesus.
We're celebrating women across the country who are flipping the status quo! Help us shine the spotlight by nominating a woman in your life who is breaking barriers and paving a new path. Head to https://t.co/fgwVEG4joI to learn more! pic.twitter.com/YRxOXvPhXb
— M&M'S (@mmschocolate) January 5, 2023
This shite is making my hair hurt. Last year when Mars, Inc. announced that the iconic, anthropomorphic brand ambassadors were going to be more “inclusive”, I wrote about the marketing disaster and included this from the announcement:
M&M’S®, part of the Mars, Incorporated portfolio of brands, has announced a global commitment to creating a world where everyone feels they belong, and society is inclusive. The iconic candy brand’s announcement is built on more than 80 years of bringing people together with its bite-sized colorful candies and flavors and is part of the evolved M&M’S brand’s strategy built on purpose, which promises to use the power of fun to include everyone, with a goal of increasing the sense of belonging for 10 million people around the world by 2025.
First, wokeness requires bad grammar. In order to be inclusive, M&Ms has the ad copy read “nominate a woman who is flipping the status quo and they could receive $10,000 to fund their flip”. “A woman.” “They” “Theirs” The brand management team at M&Ms and their advertising company owe all of their English teachers an apology.
Okay, now that I have that out of my system, here is the bizpac review write up on the promotion:
In yet another example that Corporate America will never be “woke” enough, one of the nation’s most popular candies is getting an overhaul for the times as M&M’s rolls out its new purple character as a part of the celebration of diversity, the unofficial religion of the political left.
The new “all female” packages are a part of the company’s “Flip The Status Quo” promotion, again demonstrating that the line between Democratic Party objectives and free enterprise has increasingly become a thin one with a new generation of activist business leaders rising to the fore in corporate boardrooms and human resource departments.
“We’re celebrating women who are flipping the status quo, transforming the world around them to make it a more colorful and welcoming place for all,” the brand’s website reads. “Now, we need your help to shine a spotlight on all women who are breaking barriers, setting new standards and paving new paths for others to follow.”
M&Ms knows what a woman is? How extraordinary. Are they all biologists? Maybe the brand team could give a PowerPoint presentation to a certain Supreme Court Associate Justice. Supposedly, the female M&Ms are upside down because they are flipping the script AND the upside down M’s are then “W’s”, but no not really.
So the package will feature the Green, Brown, and newly introduced Purple M&Ms. Newly introduced Purple M&M? Yes.
Something about that reminds me of my childhood with Marlo Thomas and her “Free to be, You and Me”. I had no idea that there was a new M&M until today. Congrats to the M&Ms brand team.
But wait, there is more, from the Daily Mail:
Mars, M&M’s parent company, debuted the feminist candy wrappers earlier this week, exclusively featuring the company’s three female mascots: green, brown and the newly-introduced purple.
The all-female package – upside down, to show how powerful women have ‘flipped the status quo’ – will be the first time the brown and green M&Ms have been featured together since a viral tweet from 2015 sparked rumors they were a lesbian couple.
The tweet contained a picture of the two characters holding hands on the beach, posted just two days after the Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage.
In fact, a search for the two characters in the notorious fan fiction site Archive Of Our Own produces 11 different results. The green M&M supposedly posted the tweet herself, writing: ‘It’s rare Ms. Brown and I get to spend time together without some colorful characters barging in.’
Todd Starnes has a lovely, snarky tweet:
Mars is releasing an all-female brand of M&Ms. Plain, no nuts. #woke pic.twitter.com/8y9R15wN8v
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) January 9, 2023
I am sure that didn’t help the Orange M&M’s anxiety. Or, maybe he’s a transman and never had any …nuts.
Featured Image: Mike Mozart/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons
Joe R. says: How’s about we celebrate some women who are EQUAL, shall we. You know how you know you are Equal? You were born not having to ask for it. I have NEVER IN MY WHOLE LIFE, EVER, wondered if I was “equal”. I HAVE encountered people in my life that I thought were “better”, or “smarter” than me, and that ONLY COMPELLED ME TO ATTEMPT TO EMULATE THEM IN ORDER TO BE GREATER IN THOSE CHERISHED QUALITIES.
here’s a free freekinclue.
“EQUAL IS EQUAL, anything else, ISN’T.”
“Equality is the formula for sameness on either side of short, horizontal, parallel lines. It is, by itself, a formula that creates the same solution regardless of the direction of the calculation across it, and has its own Value apart from the things that are being equated.
Equality, however, can only be achieved. It cannot be given or granted. Something is either equal to another or it can become equal to another. Something or someone cannot make something else its equal, nor does such a declaration make it so. Equal treatment can be attempted, but it cannot be exempt from bias, for this too is a request to be made equal.
The argument, when viewed in the inverse, could be framed in the statement “Equal or not, do not come to the consideration of another with the presupposition of inequality, negative opinion, or unequal view of the other”.
However an individual can only measure themselves up when such considerations are made. Thereby, I can do nothing but measure myself up, and personal subjectivity is unavoidable. Equality, actual equality, is unlikely, and it would have to be something that I would even consider before I actually considered it.
It must also be remembered, that when one asks for equality, that has not been achieved, it is a request for the other to be like the former, for more of the balance to be artificially moved closer to the unequal side.
The very request for equality begs the question of equality that causes the requested party to examine the question in breadth instead of the more common casual perusal [examination] of both parties’ position in relation to the median line.
The question viewed logically then becomes, “will you grant me the status of my apportioned Value [1] in our equality,” or inversely “what part of my individual value do you want to include in our shared value.”
Most directly put: ‘in what way do you consider yourself equal to me?’ Value being more directly discussed in the treatise on Value. At the very least, the request for equality is a demand for an introspective assessment and comparison that was not otherwise sought by the requested party.
By logic, equality should never have to be asked for, if questioned, and discerned, equality is. If not, equality is absent from the unequal party, in the way that there is inequality, not by unforeseen coalitions refusing to grant equality, but by some Value present in the party that the unequal party is not a party-to. Hostility for inequality in treatment for the inequality, is as fallacious as hostility for the inequality. . . .
Equality is, by argument, however, taken in whole-parts, and the push-back is 100%.
Thereby, when the question of equality is raised, and the one side not found to be wholly equal (equal in all parts), then the ‘unequal’ party is rejected as wholly unequal [2]. . . . ” J.M. Thomas R., TERMS, 2012 pp 109-113
Be and raise your children to be the equal that they are, and wherever possible, and favorable, I will work to be THEIR equal.
Joe R. says: If you raise your kids to ‘demand equality’, then you have told your kids that they are not equal.
2 Comments