Green M&Ms? Aphrodisiac or not? Either way, great marketing ploy by Mars!

Happy President's Day. I wish for President's Day we were given a new president. But that's a whole other blog. Today, I will write about something that makes me happy: Chocolate. And instead of red, white and blue, I will write about another color: Green.

I was CVS the other day and noticed a bright green bag amidst shelves and racks and bins and boxes full of red, pink and white candy. Like a beacon in the night (how cliché), the green bag of M&Ms stood out from the rest of the Valentine’s Day candy selection. The sexy Ms. Green M&M was winking at me. It made me smile, and even chuckle a little bit. The M&M marketing team finally played up—and capitalized on- the old legend about the color green’s role in love, or is it lust? I marveled at the cleverness and bought two bags.

I remember in elementary school hearing that if you wore green on Thursday, it meant you were horny. Then later, perhaps in junior high school, I learned that bringing in green M&Ms on Thursday meant the same thing. Or, it may have also meant that they made you horny. Either way, there was a connotation with those green M&Ms. Of course, back then it took a little bit of work to separate all the colors and there never were really many green M&Ms left, but it was fun. Okay—not that I ever did that….

The Legend of Green M&Ms
So, I wanted to see where this green M&M and/or wearing green on Thursday tying into horniness myth came from. Lo and behold, the PR company for Mars, makers of the M&Ms included much of this knowledge in an official press release for the limited-edited green M&Ms.
The press release from Mars states the legend of the green M&Ms, which they now copyrighted as The Green Ones®, are an aphrodisiac. The release continues that rumors of the green M&Ms’ special powers have been circulating since the '70s. Furthermore, the release adds that an 80s hair band star requested in his rider three pounds of green M&Ms, as have NASA astronauts on 31 space flights.

The Mars company, who brought the M&M characters to life in recent years, created a fun and flirty ad campaign to go along with the release of the green M&Ms featuring Ms. Green. Is it not a coincidence that the only female M&M is the green one? The package even contains a disclaimer that reads: “Consumption of The Green Ones® may result in elevated romance levels. If you experience this effect, contact your significant other immediately.”

Sidebar-- while I was at the M&M's website, I procrastinated a bit by creating my own M&M Character- pretty darn nifty.... you can customize mostly everything, even down to eye color, shoe color, accessories, etc. You should make yourself into an M&M too. In hindsight, I should have made myself green.

According to Snopes.com, Mars actually created Ms. Green in 1997 and ran ads in 2001 for M&Ms featuring her talking about the green ones. Maybe its because I majored in PR and just love advertising, but I totally dig this move by M&Ms. They injected new life into a tried and true American candy, and pushed the limits a tad with a little innuendo. I just love that.

What Does Green Mean?
As far as where the color green ever got off meaning love, lust or being an aphrodisiac, all my online research points to 15th century Celtic traditions. In folklore of both the Western & Eastern worlds, green often symbolizes fertility, life and rebirth. However, it is also said that green is a symbol of the devil, as well as witchcraft as it is linked to faeries.

When it comes to pop culture, there was not a lot of research out there. UrbanDictionary.com defines the green M&M as the one that supposedly makes you horny, but aside from that, all I found were blog and message board posts about the sweet school memories of the green M&M. In regards to wearing green on Thursday, not much on that either. UrbanDictionary.com had a listing on that too, but pretty much stated that wearing green on Thursday meant you were looking to hook up that coming weekend. I did find some articles that green foods in general can act as an aphrodisiac- but I hardly think asparagus will get me in the mood.