Why Red M & M’s Disappeared In America For Ten Years | The State
In 1982 the “Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M & M’s” was created.
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Carlo Sardena / Pixabay
The famous M & M’s hard candy covered chocolate candies They have been on the shelves for eight decades. These days you can find the popular lozenges in a wide variety of bright colors, blue, brown, yellow, orange, green, and red. But there is a ten year period where the red M & M’s disappeared, from 1976 to 1987.
The M & M’s Plain Chocolate Candies were launched in 1941. They were so successful that in the 1950s, Mars, the candy company that manufactures these candies, decided to put the famous “m” on each dragee to differentiate authentic M & M’S from knockoffs from knockoffs, there the slogan “Look for the m in each dragee ”.
The red M & M’s were eliminated for fear of food coloring in the 1970s. According to Live Science, Mars’ decision to recall the red candy came as a result of the Public Controversy Over Red No. 2 Synthetic Dye.
The color additives are important components of many products, is what makes them attractive and appetizing.
The red tint in question was linked to cancer in a 1971 Russian study. There was no solid evidence, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the dye just in case.
The candy company did not use Red No. 2 to make its red M & M’s. However, he decided to banish the red lozenges to eliminate any possible confusion or fear among the candy-consuming public and replaced them with orange M & M’s.
There was a “society” in defense of the Red M & M’s
Without the red, the colors were really muted and in many people there was a longing for chocolate with red coating.
There was a group defending the red M & M’s which started as a satire on email campaigns that asked people to join exclusive clubs for a small fee. The society was called “Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M & M’s”. This group ended up being a crusade with members from all over the world and that had the red chocolates back.
The society was created by Paul Hethmon 1982 a student at the University of Tennessee. It went viral in newspapers, magazines, radio, television and letters in the mail, in a time where there was no internet or Facebook.
Hethmon was in his first semester, bored and with free time, he began writing letters to his friends inviting them to join the Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M & M’s. “All they had to do was send 99 cent dues and they would get an official membership card lifetime personally signed by me, ”he told USA Today.
The group held meetings and brought a red M&M that was found in someone’s childhood toy box. The only surviving red M&M was playfully worshiped as “more precious than a diamond” by the group of university students.
Soon this society would have received media attention, including The Wall Street Journal and newspapers around the world. People from different countries also asked to join to the defense of the red M&M, it seemed that his absence really struck a chord in people.
On the mission to return the red M & M’s wrote letters to influential people, to the Mars candy company, they even wrote to the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.
After being banished in 1976, the Red M & M’s had only had two small appearances in Christmas promotions in 1985 and 1986. But finally, in 1987, Hethmon received a letter from Mars that read: “Dear Paul: Good things happen to those who wait! They reintroduced the red M&M! “ He also received 50 pounds of M & M’s, all red.
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