M&M's is back in the Super Bowl with a commercial featuring bickering candies that may remind some viewers of their own kids.
The brand's "Bad Passengers" spot shows Christina Applegate driving home from the grocery store. The arguing coming from the backseat ("he started it," "stop touching me") sounds like the stuff of children, albeit with deeper voices.
"Ok, do I have to break you guys apart?" Applegate asks as she grows increasingly frustrated, later bellowing, "If you don't stop I will eat all of you alive right now!"
The red, yellow and orange spokescandies, it turns out, are embedded into a chocolate bar much like M&M's Minis are mixed into actual M&M's chocolate bars in real life. The bars were introduced in 2018. M&M's says it's the first time it is introducing a new product in a Super Bowl ad.
The ad continues the plot introduced last week in a 15-second teaser that showed Applegate struggling to get into her locked car in the grocery store parking lot.
The commercial from BBDO New York is set to run during the first commercial break after kickoff.
"I would never scream at my child like that, but because it's M&M's it's OK," says Applegate, who has an 8-year-old daughter, in an interview. "Every day is a challenge in the car."
Applegate, known for roles including Kelly Bundy on "Married... With Children" and Veronica Corningstone in the "Anchorman" movies, says shooting a commercial is "way more intense" than shooting a show. "You're doing, like, 30 takes," says Applegate, adding that director Craig Gillespie ("I, Tonya," "Lars and the Real Girl") had her improvise a lot. The shoot took place on a one-day break Applegate had from an 11-week shoot for her upcoming Netflix series "Dead to Me."
Applegate says she loved a very particular type of M&M's as a kid, picking out only the green peanut ones.
And did she really curse in the teaser? "If anyone knew what I was actually saying, it was very, very inappropriate," says Applegate.