“Totally awesome,” huh? Upon seeing this commercial again for the first time in what must be more than 20 years, I decided to analyze why it had lodged so deeply in my noggin, why, after at least a couple of decades, I could repeat the young slugger’s candy-color catalogue almost verbatim and with the same overacted intonations.
But I should say first of all (in case it’s not clear) that I truly do think this is one of the great commercials of all time. I mean, if I could remember it after all these years — and a brief survey of some of my contemporaries indicates that I am not alone — I think one could make a strong case that it certainly accomplished what its makers hoped it would (and then some).
So how did they do it? What is the secret recipe in this case of a 30-second spot that has stood the test of time so splendidly?
The Main Ingredient Is Magic!
The strongest selling point is that M&Ms are somehow magical. Sure, I didn’t really think, even as a six-year-old, that eating an orange M&M in the on-deck circle would automatically get me a triple, but the fantasy that it would had a kind of irresistible appeal, especially to a kid. Children are prone to magical thinking anyway, so a smart advertiser does well to play off that propensity in a clever way.
And this ad was certainly clever about it. By pegging each color to a particular result, a whole diamond-shaped cosmology of cause and effect was created in the viewer’s impressionable young mind. For years and years afterwards, whenever I ate M&Ms I almost invariably thought of the baseball-related effects of each individual color, a mental repetition that presumably only served to reinforce the idea that there was something special about those little chocolate pills.
Of course, given professional baseball’s ongoing problems in recent years with real performance-enhancing drugs like steroids, one can’t help but see this old commercial in a more cynical and seedy light. It’s hardly surprising that the person who posted it on YouTube and many of the various commenters on the clip make references to “drugs,” “dealing,” “junkie[s],” and “Barry Bonds.” One is even tempted to wonder if the term “greenie” has some etymological relation to this old commercial.
In fact, I’m pretty certain that this commercial would draw howls of protest if it were run in today’s environment. Ah, but the early 80s themselves were a more innocent time (at least on TV), and as a kid the only pep pills I wanted to buck up my batting average were those delicious “M&Ms choc-o-late candies.”
A Dash of Counting…Dramatically!
The second key to this commercial’s durability lies in a pretty unlikely place: math.
The basic “1-2-3-4” way in which the little batting champion ticks off the candies’ powers is somehow very effective. I’m sure it has a lot to do with the fact that it involves a kind of built-in crescendo, with the colors rounding the base paths in a natural progression that begins with a ho-hum single and builds to a climax ending with, um, “downtown.”
Naturally, kids aren’t terribly excited by anything that smacks of school, but the math and geometry here are pretty simple, so it’s nothing that would put off any but the most math-averse child. And indeed, considering the OCD-like obsession with stats that a lot of baseball fans have, this circumnavigation of the diamond dovetails quite nicely with the average fan’s embrace of sports-related numerology.
And to Top It All Off…“Magnificent!” Acting
Let’s face it: the kids in this commercial (who are now probably in their 30s) aren’t exactly Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Heck, they’re not even that Sixth Sense kid or that Piano girl.
Yes, by and large, kids can’t act, but — here’s the rub — they also can’t tell bad acting (or writing or directing, etc.) when they see it. For example, I remember thinking that Ernest Goes to Camp was pretty hilarious when I was about eight years old.
And so in fact, somewhat perversely, these kids’ atrocious overacting was actually perfect for this commercial aimed at other little kids. Indeed, to be precise, my brothers and I probably did sense, even as urchins, that there was something hilariously over-the-top about the little slugger’s delivery, which is undoubtedly why we took such glee in mimicking it over and over again, drilling that wacky propaganda even deeper into our brains.
Sometimes there’s nothing quite as good as bad acting for making an unforgettable commercial.
And Finally, Marinate for 22 Years
Ultimately, it can be difficult to say exactly what makes a commercial memorable, and doubtless much of what makes us nostalgic lies in the eye of a given beholder.
For me, though, there isn’t another commercial from my childhood years that made nearly the impression that this odd and manipulative little gem did, and in all seriousness, those serious about the craft of ad-making would do well to consider what it is that has made the best commercials of yesteryear so durable as they strive to create the “totally awesome” commercials of tomorrow.
Of course, I should probably also note, as a postscript, that I don’t eat M&Ms for the time being due to ethical concerns. I guess some products have problems that even a classic ad can’t overcome.
