Reel Ad of the Week

M&M’s freezes the familiar with POP’d Caramel campaign

By Reel Chicago
April 20, 2026

BBDO Chicago takes this week’s top spot with a campaign that does exactly what great product launches should do. It makes the familiar feel weird again. Created for M&M’s, the work introduces POP’d Caramel, the brand’s first freeze-dried candy, by leaning into the one thing M&M’s has always done better than most. Character.

Instead of overexplaining the product, the campaign lets the Spokescandies do the heavy lifting, reacting in real time to what is essentially an identity crisis. Same M&M’s. Completely different experience.

That tension fuels the entire idea.

In spots like “What Have I Done,” Yellow slowly realizes he’s eating a freeze-dried version of his own kind, while Orange spirals into existential panic. Red, as expected, is less introspective and more annoyed that humans are enjoying it.

It is absurd. It is self-aware. And it works. Watch below:

The humor lands because it is rooted in something real. Freeze-dried candy is having a moment, especially with younger audiences chasing novelty and texture over tradition. Instead of chasing the trend, BBDO Chicago folds it directly into the brand’s world.

The campaign also stays true to M&M’s long-running “It’s More Fun Together” platform, using its core creative assets without feeling repetitive. The characters still feel like themselves, just dropped into a slightly stranger version of reality.

That is not easy to pull off.

Across broadcast, streaming, and social, the work avoids the trap a lot of legacy brands fall into when launching something new. It does not abandon what made the brand recognizable in the first place. It just twists it.

And that is the sweet spot.

This one does not scream for attention.

It earns it by making you do a double-take.

CREDITS:

BRAND: M&M’s Agency

AGENCY BBDO Chicago