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- How did the idea for M&M's start? The story goes that Forrest Mars, Sr. took a trip to Spain during the Spanish Civil War and saw soldiers eating pellets of chocolate with hard, sugary coatings to prevent them from melting in the sun. This inspired Forrest, and he went back to his kitchen to work on his own version of this unique candy.
- M&M's were first sold to the American military in 1941.
- For many years, all M&M's were brown, plain, and sold in cardboard tubes. They travelled well in any climate.
- By the late 1940s, M&M's were largely available to the public.
- In 1948, the packaging was changed to the brown paper pouch that we all know today.
- In 1954, Peanut M&M's were introduced and the company's profits continued to soar with both flavors. It was also that year that the familiar M&M's characters debuted on TV with their famous slogan, "The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand!".
- The different colors did not start until 1960. It was that year that red, yellow, and green were added to the original brown.
- In 1972, the M&M's characters were now included on the packaging. They had already been enormously popular in print and TV advertising.
- Orange was added as an M&M color in 1976.
- A stupid thing happened in 1976. Red was pulled from the M&M color line-up. Why? There was a controversy over a certain red food coloring. This red food coloring was not used in M&M's, but to avoid public confusion the color was pulled.
- In 1987, red M&M's were back by strong consumer demand.
- 1995 was another big year for M&M's. The public could actually vote on a new color of M&M's to add to the line-up. The choices were blue, pink, purple, or no change. Blue won by a landslide with 54% of the 10 million votes cast.
- M&M's Minis, the candy and characters, were
introduced in 1996. They came in reclosable tubes and six
different colors.