M&M’s recent super bowl advertisement drew fresh criticism regarding their decision to leave NASCAR and Kyle Busch.
M&M’s were Busch’s long-time sponsor for the No. 18 Toyota. The partnership began in 2008, during which Busch won two Cup Series championships. However, the company decided to leave NASCAR altogether.
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President of Mars Wrigley North America, Anton Vincent, then said the decision to leave NASCAR was a “shift in our sports marketing strategy”.
“There’s a lot of consumer interest and other passion points we need to get to,” he said at the time. “We love the sport and we’ve supported the sport when the sport was going through all of its changes, through all of the ups and downs.
“I think we get great credit for that and deserve that credit. There’s a bit of a shift in our sports marketing strategy. Our consumer base is very distributive.”
When M&M’s left Busch as their sponsor, this eventually led to him leaving Joe Gibbs Racing. While not many, especially Busch’s fans liked the decision, the company’s recent ad has brought back more criticism towards the company.
The criticism was led by Motorsports commentator Dave Moody who posted his surprise at the video.
M&Ms dumped @KyleBusch for THAT???
— Dave Moody (@DGodfatherMoody) February 13, 2023
He followed it with another tweet.
I guess I’ve never been quite that angry about chocolate.
— Dave Moody (@DGodfatherMoody) February 13, 2023
Some fans followed up on that tweet with similar comments.
I could stand to boycott some candy.😂
— Rob Braun (@Sunday_Money11) February 13, 2023
That commercial is more likely to make me boycott @mmschocolate.
— Rob Braun (@Sunday_Money11) February 13, 2023