| Post contributing columnist John Paul Brammer has a way of making sense of the absurd, and he applied that superpower last week to the unexpected news that M&Ms were getting identity makeovers. "In a move absolutely no one asked for," John Paul wrote, "the candy-maker Mars Wrigley announced Thursday that it plans to refresh the multicolor mascots of its M&Ms to be more 'inclusive' and have 'more nuanced personalities.' It's not immediately apparent how this will be accomplished by swapping the go-go boots the anthropomorphized green M&M has worn in advertisements since 1997 for a new pair of 'cool, laid-back sneakers,' as the company said it would, nor what shaving some height off the brown M&M's heels will do." Mars Wrigley, John Paul noted, is not the first large company to try to update its brands or make what he called "overtures at progressivism." But he pointed out that some of these efforts often just reinforce "the retrograde ideas they claim to eschew." As for the new M&M incarnations, he wrote, "The great sin here isn't the intent to make people feel included or seen; it's the hypocrisy, and the ham-handedness, too. If I'm buying a pack of candy containing God-knows-what from a multinational conglomerate, I've likely made my peace with their whole deal and would rather them keep their pseudo-progressive piffle to themselves while they loot the planet. … Just let my chocolates be chocolates." M&M'S don't have to represent me. Let candy be candy. By John Paul Brammer ● Read more » | | | Loopholes in marriage and immigration law are allowing the exploitation of minors, including U.S. citizens. By Sasha K. Taylor ● Read more » | | | The holiday has faded into deserved obscurity. But it should be abolished. By Karen Attiah ● Read more » | | | The Winter Olympics will be further chilled by China's surveillance state. By James Hohmann ● Read more » | | | Free speech in a government-sponsored public forum does not violate the separation of church and state. By David Cole ● Read more » | | | It's unacceptable that regulators seem to have been caught off-guard by a development so long in the making. By David Von Drehle ● Read more » | | | |
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