M&M’s the world’s most famous candy a part of Jersey History

When it comes to chocolate candy there’s no debate about what is the most famous candy ever invented. It’s M&M’s! M&M’s were invented in 1941 right here in New Jersey by Forrest E. Mars.

They were the original plain hard chocolate covered candies and the success came pretty quick. The fact that they never melt in your hand made them a great candy for our soldiers fighting in World War II, they wouldn’t melt in their pockets or backpacks and the Army commissioned thousands and thousands of M&M’s for the troops.

M&M’s became so popular by 1950 that there were many imitators starting to creep up, so M&M’s, to stay true to the brand, stamped every piece of candy with the letter m and used the slogan ”look for the m on every piece” was created and used in the marketing of M&M’s. In 1954 chocolate covered peanut candies were introduced and they changed the color of the m on every piece from black to white.

In the '80s M&M’s enjoyed success as being the first candy in outer space, it was also the first candy to be the official candy of the 1984 Olympics. Colors, peanuts, peanut butter all became part of the M&M brand and all continue to sell at astronomic numbers.

Their growth continued into the 1990s and the 2000s with many marketing schemes that were successful in keeping the M&M brand alive and well.

In 2018 M&M’s had sales over $667 million dollars. Hershey’s chocolate bar and all of Hershey’s products had sales of over $440 million combined. One candy, M&M’s, was outselling all of Hershey’s. Today Mars Incorporated produces 400 million individual M&M candies each and every day. That's a lot of chocolate!

So this year for your trick or treat be proud to reach for a pack of M&M’s proudly made right here in the great state of New Jersey.