Post #11 M&Ms
When thinking of CGI commercial spokes people the idea of the coca cola polar bears may come to mind but there are others. In the 1990s the mars candy company changed their generic family friendly ad characters into CGI characters with personality.
According to the wikipedia entry on M&Ms: These include the team of the cynical and sardonic “Red” (originally Jon Lovitz, thereafter Billy West), who is the mascot for milk chocolate M&M’s, and the happy and gullible “Yellow” (originally John Goodman, thereafter J.K. Simmons), who is the mascot for peanut M&M’s. Other mascots include the “cool one”, Blue (originally Phil Hartman, thereafter Robb Pruitt) for almond; the seductive Green (Cree Summer) for peanut butter, mint, and dark chocolate (Green is the only female M&M’s mascot);[10] and the slightly neurotic Orange (Eric Kirchberger)
When Mars expanded into the greater depths of animation they started making video games for product such as the mini M&Ms.
In the case of Red and Yellow the personalities are so well loved and recognized they have done holiday commercials as well as super bowl commercials.
M&Ms are tied so closely to modern pop culture thanks to the success of these GI spokescandies that they have been interviewed by Regis and Kelly, they have had tie ins with StarWars as well as Transformers.
Below I have placed some of my favore M&M moments.
ETA: Commented on Allingham and Lyver.
amartin78 said,
April 14, 2010 at 1:58 am
I adore these characters! My particular favorite has been on for years, the Christmas ad where they are surprised by the ‘real’ Santa Claus, after Red says there is no real Santa. I think bringing these characters into play has been an enormously bright idea for this company, off the top of my head I cannot think of another chocolate candy that has been brought to life and animated. They are like the Simpsons and can grow with the times.