Something about those anthropomorphic M&M characters always really hit a nerve with me, but I usually couldn't really put my finger on why. So thanks for making it glaringly obvious with this commercial, Mars.
Whenever they bring in the green M&M, I prepare for rage take-off. M&Ms delivered for me, once again, with the use of the green M&M here.
The green M&M obviously is supposed to represent some sort of female viewpoint, although it's not entirely clear if this feminization is supposed to be geared toward women in that it gives them a fun little M&M character to follow, or geared toward men with the blatant sexualizing of a piece of fricken candy. Those issues aside, what irks me in particular about this commercial (and sent me into a screaming rage that scared those around me) is that one line:
"Boys, it's all about working the polls."
This line is obviously a double entendre, playing off the politically related word "polls," meaning the casting and registering of votes in an election; and the much more problematic "poles," bringing in a much more insidious suggestion of a stripper pole. The suggestion of the double meaning is emphasized by the phrasing--"working the polls," a colloquial phrase often used in reference to strippers and politicians, alike.
The situation is worsened by the delivery of the line, her voice is husky and seductive as she blows a kiss to the crowd. Also potentially problematic, and I might be wrong here, but it sounds to me as if the line is delivered by a WOC, which plays into so many more damaging stereotypes that I probably can't even begin to completely dissect that problem.
How hard would it have been to portray the female M&M in a positive role of power in politics? Why is it that even an anthropomorphic M&M, with hardly any physical appearance of a human being, still has to be hypersexualized when it takes on those more "female" qualities?
M&Ms, you are SHITLISTED.
