As we continue our series on famous holiday ads, we take Santa and add animated candy characters. In the popular Christmas commercial “Faint” by the Mars company, these candy-coated known as “Red” and “Yellow” meet Santa and the results are pretty hilarious.
The M&Ms characters were first introduced by the Mars company in 1954, and came to life in animated commercials beginning in 1995. Mars named each character after their color, and gave each of the M&Ms a distinct personality. Since then they have become beloved advertising icons.
In “Faint”, Red and Yellow put a twist on the tradition of setting out Christmas cookies for Santa by setting out red and green holiday M&Ms. When the M&Ms walk in on Santa delivering presents, Red and Santa both faint (hence the name of the commercial) due to their shock.
Even in this short ad, you can get a hint of the personalities of Red and Yellow. Red is the snarky skeptical one, and Yellow seems to still be a child at heart, worrying about if Santa will like their M&Ms. Additionally, by putting twists on Christmas traditions and adding a solid punch of humor in a very short ad, Mars successfully holds the attention of their audience and makes their commercial memorable. The commercial also uses the depiction of Santa Claus that we mentioned in our previous post; the universally accepted fat man with a white beard in a red suit.
Watch the commercial below, and check out our previous post about Coca-Cola and Santa Claus.
