Out of all the teasers for Super Bowl marketing campaigns coming out in the past few weeks, the most viral has no doubt been M&M’s humorous clapback at Tucker Carlson’s impassioned on-air rant about the brand’s cartoon mascots’ shoes.
Now, Zappos has joined the conversation with a campaign showcasing the green M&M’s character as a “shoefluencer” doing a takeover of the brand’s Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn on Thursday and Friday of this week. On Thursday, it posted a slideshow on LinkedIn and Instagram showing the character promoting different shoe styles including sneakers, Croc-style shoes, heeled boots and Doc Marten-shaped boots. A TikTok post will go live on Friday.
“At Zappos, there’s a shoe for everyone, and we believe that the right pair of shoes can change your altitude and attitude. Tucker should check out some of Green’s recommendations to find his perfect fit,” said Ginny McCormick, CMO of Zappos.
The focus on shoes plays on Carlson’s January 2022 on-air tirade lamenting M&M’s decision to replace the green M&M’s heels with sneakers and the brown M&M’s high heels with lower block heels.
“M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous, until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them. … When you’re totally turned off, we’ve achieved equity. They’ve won,” he said on his show at the time. The spot went predictably viral, causing many commentators to joke about the possibility that Carlson had been attracted to the green M&M.
Sometimes Carlson’s rants about brands get taken more seriously: Balenciaga’s creative director Demna explained in a Vogue interview published yesterday that the entire creative direction of the fashion label is now changing following its teddy bear scandal that was sparked by a Carlson segment last year.
For M&M’s Super Bowl campaign, the candy brand posted an “announcement” on its social channels earlier this month stating that, due to the controversy, it would be replacing its “spokescandies” with Maya Rudolph. In the lead-up to its Super Bowl ad debut, it has since been releasing humorous content with Rudolph making it abundantly clear that this is a marketing stunt. Not all Instagram commenters seem to get the joke, however, with many appearing to take the posts literally and complaining about the change.
“When we noticed the controversy surrounding M&M’s footwear, most notably the backlash that Green received, we couldn’t help but enter the chat. We offered to become M&M’s Official Shoe Sponsor via Instagram and TikTok. Shortly after our offer was issued, M&M’s responded to let us know that the spokescandies were pursuing solo projects. The rest is history. We invited Green to take over our social media as a shoefluencer for our audience, and she graciously accepted,” said McCormick.
While Super Bowl ad campaigns have long focused on men, there’s more women-oriented advertising this year from beauty and fashion labels such as E.l.f. Beauty, Fenty Beauty, Savage X Fenty and Pacsun.
