Mmmmmmmm

[FuzzyWuzzy]

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_355a.html

And to answer the obvious question raised by this answer, the original name of the 3M company was “Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company”.

Also, Mars and Murrie’s first names were Forrest and Bruce, respectively. Murrie was the son of the then president of Hershey.

[Shrinking_Violet]

From column:

“M&M stands for the two confectionery geniuses, Mars and Murrie, who founded the firm back in 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which also happens to be the home of the 3M company (why does this seem significant?). M&M is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Mars (hmm …) Candy Corporation, manufacturers of such venerable teeth rotters as Milky Ways, Three Musketeers, and … Snickers. Shoot. For a second there I thought I had evidence of another Illuminati plot.”

This could explain why “Marathon” was renamed to “Snickers” in the UK - they knew Cecil was onto them!

[RiverRunner]

@Shrinking Violet

From column:

This could explain why “Marathon” was renamed to “Snickers” in the UK - they knew Cecil was onto them!

They also marketed a candy bar named Fnord, but nobody bought it.
RR

[Mister_Rik]

I think they should create a caffeine-injected candy bar, market it to Linux/Unix geeks, and call it the “Foo Bar”.