M&M’s Screentime campaign drops the sweets into TV genres. BBDO made three spots

Mars started a campaign for M&M’s called Screentime on 24 September. BBDO Chicago wrote it and Rami Hachache of Prettybird directed it in Toronto. There are three spots and each one runs 15 seconds.

Rami Hachache shot a telenovela, a crime show and a tribal council

The three films are called Telenovela, Scene of the Crime and Unanimous. In each one the sweets play the parts. One is a romance with long stares. One is a crime scene with an investigation. One is a reality contest where somebody gets voted out. Omnicom Production made them.

The idea is small and the brand states it plainly. People eat these sweets while watching television, so the sweets have been moved into the programmes themselves.

Josh Gross calls the sweets a cast people already know

Josh Gross, chief creative officer at BBDO Chicago, said the parody works because “these spokescandies feel like a cast we’ve known for years”. Mars has spent decades building those characters. It paused them in 2023, put Maya Rudolph in their place for a short spell, then brought them back at the Super Bowl.

BBDO sends the spots to broadcast, programmatic and social

The plan covers broadcast television, the full-episode player, programmatic video and social. Mars is aiming at a group it calls the Flavor Faithfuls, meaning buyers across several age groups rather than one. No budget was disclosed.

Borrowed entertainment is a busy lane this autumn. Instacart put Shrek and Scooby-Doo in its launch campaign, and Target built its holiday work around the red bag. The difference here is that Mars owns its cast and pays nobody for the licence.

The open question is length. Mars has put out 15-second cuts only, and the holiday quarter is when 30-second broadcast slots get bought. Whether a longer Screentime film turns up on television before Christmas will say how far the brand trusts the short form.