# M&M's:  The official candy of the New Millennium

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-the-official-candy-of-the-new-millennium/113270>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 10, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-the-official-candy-of-the-new-millennium/113270 "2002-06-10T16:44:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-the-official-candy-of-the-new-millennium/113270/1 "2002-06-10T16:44:53Z")

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I seem to recall a few years ago that the Mars Corporation was going to have a special promotion that there would be a “special” bag of M&M’s and that the person who purchase that bag would win a million dollars.

Did anyone ever get it, or did I just imagine the promotion?

(This is not a question about whether “millennium” refers to the years 2001-3000 or 2000-2999–as it clearly does in the case of this promotion.)

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**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-the-official-candy-of-the-new-millennium/113270/2 "2002-06-10T19:02:49Z")

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You did not imagine the promotion. 🙂

There was a bit of excitement when a [jail inmate](http://www.ksl.com/dump/news/cc/m&m.htm) thought he had won the million dollar prize.

Unfortunately, it turned out that he was just one of a million first prize winners who only got a [free bag of M&M’s](http://www.geocities.com/doireanne/iheldyounearmyheart.html).

Apparently [Jason Rollman](http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/chance_news/recent_news/chance_news_6.05.html#Snapple) of Enfield, New Hampshire found the original million dollar prize piece before the contest was even announced, so M&M Mars agreed to provide a second million dollar prize.

I can’t find any information about whether that prize was claimed.

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**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-the-official-candy-of-the-new-millennium/113270/3 "2002-06-10T22:05:58Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mjollnir \*  
> \*\*(This is not a question about whether “millennium” refers to the years 2001-3000 or 2000-2999–as it clearly does in the case of this promotion.) \*\*

Obviously the latter-otherwise, they’d be called M&MI’s or M&M&I’s or something like that.