Written Analysis 5

M&M’s is the popular culture topic that I focused on during these six weeks. I believe that it was a good topic as I was able to relate my popular culture topic with most of the theories learned in this class one way or another. The concepts of popular beliefs, myths, icons, rituals, stereotypes, heroes and formulas are all related to my popular culture topic. Still, I believe that the two concepts that describe this topic better than anything else is the concepts of icons and heroes.

I found a lot of interesting things that I didn’t even knew about my topic during my research. I had no idea that the green M&M is considered an aphrodisiac, but now I can see why the green M&M is depicted as sensual and provoking in the commercials. Also, I couldn’t believe the extent that some people go when it comes to the way they eat those delicious M&M’s. Some people are creative when it comes to this, and they found really inventive ways of eating the M&M's by grouping them, sorting them, etc. I like to watch the M&M commercials, and I found them to be amusing but I must say that there is a lot of stereotyping in those commercials. I know that the idea is to sell as many M&M's as they can but sometimes they cross the line between what it is acceptable and what is not. The creation of the M&M characters, and the way they are portrayed has helped the brand to get stronger and created the idea of the M&M’s being icons and/or heroes.

I have learned a lot of new things about M&M’s. It was a very interesting topic that worked well with all the concepts learned in this class. Not a lot of things have changed in the way I see the M&M’s, but I recognize more the role that they have played for the last 75 years in our society. Of course, now when I’m eating M&M’s I’m thinking about some of the things that I have learned, and I'm more aware of the M&M's role in todays society.