Origins:
The Mars Company of Hackettstown, New Jersey (now M&M/MARS),
has been producing M&M Chocolate Candies since 1941.
(The peanut variety was introduced in 1954.) Various rumors
have since been attached to different colors of the
candy: the green ones are an aphrodisiac; if the last candy
out of a bag is red, make a wish and it will come true; if
the last candy out of a bag is yellow, you should call in
sick and stay home; orange M&Ms are good luck, but brown ones
are bad luck. M&M/MARS notes that all these rumors were
developed by consumers, not the company.
The rumor that these green candies are an aphrodisiac
apparently started or first gained prominence in the
1970s, when students reportedly picked the green ones out of
packages to feed to the objects of their desires.
(At that time, an average of 10% of plain M&Ms and 20% of
peanut M&Ms were green.) Why the green M&Ms were attributed
with this power is unknown; perhaps it was because the color
green has always been associated with healing and fertility.
(The company itself routinely states that they "cannot
explain any extraordinary 'powers' attributed to [green M&Ms],
either scientifically or medically"; the same "powers" have
also been claimed of green jelly beans and gummi bears.)
When red M&Ms were temporarily taken off the market after the
FDA banned the use of red
In 1992, a California lawyer named Wendy Jaffe cashed in on
the legend and started a company named Cool Chocolates Inc.
Her company's sole product was a green