It probably sounded like a compelling promotional gimmick on paper. Early this year, privately held Mars replaced its colorful M&M chocolate candies with black and white as a way to spark some excitement for the new, brighter colors to come. Did anyone really care?
It seems as if the marketing effort melted in your mouth -- not in your head. While the candy maker bought up chunks of ad time in General Electric's
I mean, everyone knows that it takes three licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll
Five years ago, we singled out Mars as one of the companies that we would love to see go public. Some of those -- like UPS
These are steady, cash-flinging vehicles that don't require a ton of research and development to improve on. So maybe if I let out a yawn upon finding that the color had returned to M&Ms, it's just that to me the company never lost its bright hues to begin with.
Do you disagree? Were you hanging on every marketing moment for the colors to return to your favorite M&M flavors? Is Willy Wonka the coolest ever? All this and more -- in the Give Me all the Chocolate!! discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz only managed to eat the original colored M&M candies during this black and white promotion. He does not own shares in any companies mentioned in this story.