Beleaguered Fact-Checkers Forced To Clarify They Are Not Putting 'Cum In M&Ms'

M&M's have been at the center of what feels like a thousand controversies in recent years, attracting criticism for "de-sexifying" the green M&M character, introducing a "plus-sized woman" M&M and briefly pretending the M&M mascots were "retired" as part of a prank Super Bowl ad campaign. While all of that did happen, one thing that didn't was Mars Inc. advertising they were putting "cum" in M&M's.

In case you haven't seen it for yourself and are now completely confused, here's the image of a supposed advertisement that's been making the rounds online lately.

Unsurprisingly, the above picture is actually a Photoshop job that's been circulating online since 2017.

It's an edit of a real ad painted onto a building at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and West 34th Street in Manhattan, NYC that advertised "We put caramel in the M&M's."

The image lived in relative obscurity for years until Monday, when it was tweeted by "non aesthetic things," aka @PicturesFoIder on Twitter. As the post racked up tens of thousands of likes and retweets, apparently just enough people thought it was real that Snopes had to step in to clarify that no, such an ad never existed.

While fact-checkers may never be able to independently confirm that there is not cum inside every M&M, we can at least be sure that Mars is not advertising that there is.