Red M&M's in the '70s

[bandit957]

Everyone insists - insists, I tell you! - that there were no red M&M's in the 1970s. I remember around 1990, one of the biggest news stories was the addition of red M&M's. But I know for a fact they had them in the '70s, just not the '80s. I remember visiting relatives in Philadelphia when I was going on 3, back in 1976, and they had a plate of M&M's that included red M&M's. For years after that, I thought it was weird that you never saw red M&M's anymore until about 1990.

[hotdogPi]

For those worried about red dye #2 at the time: couldn't people just check the ingredients label?

[US 89]

They pulled them in 1976.

https://www.livescience.com/33017-why-were-red-mms-discontinued-for-a-decade.html

[Dirt Roads]

And some kids didn't see them before 1976 either.  My little sister was allergic to red dye, and my mom always pulled out the red M&Ms and gave them to the rest of us.  To this day, my sister thinks that she was only allergic to "Sweet Tarts".

[Max Rockatansky]

Wasn't there some sort of nation wide mail-in poll in the 1990s that resulted in blue being added?  I vaguely recall voting for purple to be contrarian to my friends. 

[kphoger]

Wasn't there some sort of nation wide mail-in poll in the 1990s that resulted in blue being added?  I vaguely recall voting for purple to be contrarian to my friends. 

And that was your introduction to third-party politics.

[Takumi]

Wasn't there some sort of nation wide mail-in poll in the 1990s that resulted in blue being added?  I vaguely recall voting for purple to be contrarian to my friends. 

Yes, it replaced tan.

[triplemultiplex]

Wasn't there some sort of nation wide mail-in poll in the 1990s that resulted in blue being added?  I vaguely recall voting for purple to be contrarian to my friends. 

I remember buying into that ad campaign completely as a kid and was totally stoked when I could finally rip open a bag and have some blue M&M's tumble out.  Never mind that they all taste the same, THERE'S A NEW COLOR!!

[hbelkins]

Do green M&Ms still make you horny?  That was the big joke when I was a teenager.

[Big John]

^^ Green and brown M&M characters are portrayed as female.

[Max Rockatansky]

Do green M&Ms still make you horny?  That was the big joke when I was a teenager.

That was always the Green Skittle when I was a kid.

[bandit957]

Do green M&Ms still make you horny?  That was the big joke when I was a teenager.

That was always the Green Skittle when I was a kid.

In my day, this joke was about people who wore green on Thursdays.

[Max Rockatansky]

Do green M&Ms still make you horny?  That was the big joke when I was a teenager.

That was always the Green Skittle when I was a kid.

In my day, this joke was about people who wore green on Thursdays.

I seem to recall this recently being debated amongst co-workers when the Green Apple Skittle became a thing.  Where is the implied causality between sex drive and the color green in candy?  The leap logic is beyond far fetched in my mind even for a teenager. 

[hbelkins]

Anyone remember the clause that there could be no brown M&Ms in the candy bowl in Van Halen's dressing room? That was always portrayed as a quirk of David Lee Roth's but it turned out there was a method to the seeming madness. The thought was that if the venue would overlook that portion of the contract, they might overlook other, more important, clauses. It was a test for how well the venue followed directions.

[ClassicHasClass]

I remember reading about that. Seemed like a clever way to screen out the less fastidious venues.