This article is for quizzes on Wednesday January 13th...
M&M's (styled as m&m's) are "colorful button-shaped chocolates" produced by Mars, Incorporated and similar to and inspired by Smarties. The candy shell, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case on one side, surrounds a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M's. The original candy had a milk chocolate filling which, upon introducing other variations, was branded as the "plain" variety. "Peanut" M&M's, which feature a peanut coated in milk chocolate, and finally a candy shell, were the first variation to be introduced, and they remain a regular variety. Numerous other variations have been introduced, some of which are regular widespread varieties (such as "peanut butter", "almond", "pretzel", "crispy", and "dark chocolate"), while others are limited in duration or geographic availability.
In early 1995, Mars ran a promotion in which consumers were invited to vote on which of blue, pink, or purple would replace the tan M&M's. Blue was the winner, replacing tan in the fall of 1995. Consumers could vote by calling 1-800-FUN-COLOR. Ads for the new blue colors featured a plain and an almond blue M&M character as Red and Yellow take notice of trying to do takes in the commercial by painting themselves blue where they appear on stage with B.B. King singing the blues, but the filmmakers had to cut the scene as they were not the real blue M&M's; another featured Red and Yellow holding their breath to look like the new blue M&M's, where Steven Weber sees the three M&M's, Red, Yellow, and Blue; and one more featuring Weber talking to the blue M&M if he had dived into the chocolate pool, but did not.
