This is the Day!

I'm a fan of M&M's. There's just something special about those iconic hard shelled sweets that can't be denied. Each lower case 'm' stamped individually onto each little bit of chocolate just seems like an affirmation of the magic of marketing and for the most part M&M's has been able to play the game relatively well over the years. Ultimately, while they may often compete with Starburst when facing off for my vending-machine change, they're a candy I just can't say no to.

Unless of course it's Lent, I've given up chocolate, but I get the chance to hop-skip through the 3 story tall M&M's store in New York City's Times Square ...

Fight it, fight it, fight it ...

But, I digress. I've been meaning to tackle this latest round of M&M's advertising, which has both my marketing sensibilities and candy love working over time. While I've found the anthropomorphized red and yellow characters to be great representatives of the brand, the idea has been expanded vastly to encompass not only the family of colors (the crazy minis, smexy green, etc) but now each and every member of the M&M's nation!

You can check out these "Inner M" commercials on the M&M's commercials page. Or right here:

Sure the idea is clever and they even have an M&M avatar promotion behind it, whereby you can make your own freaky 3D M&M avatar, but that's not the main reason why I've gotta love the commercials ... even though my M&M me is oh-so lovable.


The MAIN reason has definitely got to be the supremely good music choices M&M has recently begun to use for its commercials. While they can't touch the randomness factor of a good Starburst or Altoids commercial with a 10 foot pole, they can surely get enough music ear worms around that the commercials becomes memorable for almost that sole reason.

Case in point, the last commercial to get this treatment used Iron & Wine's Such Great Heights to an amazing effect - giving M&M's the mellow indie cred that is as almost as sweet as chocolate itself. As people returned from commercial, finding themselves unable to shake the tune of this catchy but obscure song, they were forced to look beyond the top pop charts and dig a little deeper. All the while then, M&M basked in the beautiful synergy of good music and web-literate listeners.

Now, as listeners come out of this latest round of commercials, yearning to find out more - they're pointed to the M&M's main page ... but, I can cut out that middle man. The source of this amazing song is none other than the eighties, nineties, and even 00's under appreciated sensation, The The.

Yes, that's right, the band's name is The The.

And here's the music video for their catchy chocolate commercial cameo. Enjoy!

What's more, if you're like me and need to have this song around - whether on computer or iPod, you can find it on The The's album Soul Mining (through The The's website) ... or listen to it here

The The - This is the Day (mp3 via Rapidshare)

So now that I've devoted an irretrievable part of my life to blogging about chocolate commercial tunes, I feel about ready to drown my self-pity in a sea of colorful chocolate friends ... hmm, M&M's you may have made the best possible choice yet, what with pandering to a demographic of New Wave loving bloggers! Kudos! While today may not be the day, tomorrow will be the day -- my life will surely change!

Tags: M&M, commercial, advertisement, Inner M, avatar, Iron & Wine, The The, This is the Day, music, music video