We’re supposed to find it amusing, I guess, that the Orange M&M is clearly upset at the prospect of having “a giant pretzel shoved inside” of him. His voice is filled with terror and he appears to be having a panic attack. The pretzel, meanwhile, plays the tough: cracking his pretzel knuckles and growling, “Hey buddy, I’m not too thrilled about this either,” before we see the final product; a disturbed looking M&M with a pretzel inside of his stomach. The commercial makes a point to show that the pretzel enters the M&M via the top of the M&M’s head, which is a way of getting around the underlying rape humor, I guess, though it doesn’t erase it entirely.
Talking M&Ms are nothing new; for years we’ve watched them take on human characteristics (Green, for example, becoming the “sexy” female M&M and playing on the urban legend about green M&Ms and their aphrodisiac potential) and even show fear at the thought of being consumed by customers, which, in itself, is kind of creepy. But when you assign human characteristics to your adorable candy spokesperson, it’s a bit shady to act like it’s hilarious and charming when one of them is essentially pleading with researchers not to stick something into his body. Candy is good! Candy is fun! Rape is neither of these things! Perhaps the M&Ms crew will keep that in mind next time. Unlike the candy, the commercial leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth.