HISTORY OF M&M’s

Let’s start with a question. Who doesn’t like candy? Although overconsumption of candy is unhealthy for the human body, we look for something like candy to have a snack while watching a movie, having a chat with our family or friends. We use candy even while garnishing a birthday cake! Even though there are many candy brands in the global market, there is one popular brand that we all know: M&M’s. M&M’s are button-shaped chocolate covered with sugar shells in many colours like yellow, orange, red, brown, green and violet. M&M’s took its name from the initials of its founders’ names, Mars and Murrie, and founded in 1941 by Forrest Mars Sr. and Bruce Murrie. Over the years it had spread around the world as a symbol of American popular culture.  Have you ever wondered what the source of this popularity is?

M&M’s history of popularity is based on the Second World War. After Forrest Mars Sr. dissolved the partnership with his father, who is owner of Mars Company, he decided to move on to his own way. In those years, there was Spanish Civil War in Europe. Mars witnessed that British enlistees were consuming small chocolate beads covered with solid sugar shells. It was preventing chocolates from melting. He thought that it was a great idea and a solution for a big problem, which was encountered with the decreasing consumption rate of chocolate, in summer seasons. In that age, chocolate consumption was decreasing during summer because when chocolate faces with warm air, it tastes bad. If he could succeed in making thawless chocolate, this would stabilize chocolate consumption even in summer season.

M&M’s In Second World War and In Space

After Mars returned to the US, he looked for a partnership to supply resources for use to create a new candy brand. New partner was Bruce Murrie who was the son of the Hershey Company owner Mr. Hershey. In 1941, Mars’s idea that was inspired by Spanish Civil War could bring M&M’s candies and American soldiers together. The US Military sold M&M’s during World War II thanks to its heat-resistant structure, and also its package was easy to carry.

An advertisement of M&M’s special edition for Nasa’s Atlantis space shuttle

After the war, M&M’s popularity gained steam. Moreover, M&M’s is the first candy to go into space! In 1981, Nasa’s first space shuttle Atlantis hosted M&M’s as a virtue of its success during wartime. It was consumed and kept in the space shuttle easily thanks to its durable structure and small packaging. 

As you see, M&M’s is more than a candy, it is a hero that made soldier rations enjoyable and an astronaut that saw our planet from afar. And of course it is a production of an intelligent brain.  

References:

Website: Forrest Mars, Jr. (2021). Retrieved 8 April 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/profile/forrest-mars-jr/?sh=25a99a2e79ee

Website: SCHUMM, L. (2021). Six Times M&Ms Made History. Retrieved 13 April 2021, from https://www.history.com/news/the-wartime-origins-of-the-mm#:~:text=1.,manufacturing%20Mars%20bars%20for%20troops.