If you are a corporate mascot, you are in danger. Are you current enough? Woke enough? The M&M spokescandies are only the latest to get swallowed up by the left’s dominance of corporate culture.

Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins were all replaced by less interesting, less memorable, corporately generic names. Pearl Milling Company, Ben’s Original (How unoriginal!) Cleveland Guardians and the most generic of all, Washington Commanders. Mia from Land O Lakes butter and her buddy the Frito Bandito were simply sacrificed on the altar of corporate wokemanship. (Woke-personship?)

That’s what happened at Mars. The M&M public relations strategy was to turn a popular family brand woke overnight. The stated goal was, "creating a world where everyone feels they belong and society is inclusive."

That lefty corpspeak didn’t go well, so the media blamed … conservatives. CNBC said Mars dropped the candies "amid right-wing outrage." CNN blamed "a year of conservative backlash to the brand." But Mars admitted its chocolatey spokescandies had been "polarizing."

M&M'S DITCHES ‘SPOKESCANDIES’ – FOR NOW – AFTER STEPS TO PROMOTE INCLUSIVITY DEEMED TOO POLARIZING

That didn’t used to be the case and, fair to say, Mars started it. M&Ms finally ditched the woke marketing the company tried to ram down customers’ throats almost a year ago to the day. That campaign was introduced with an unsubtle strategy to address a "Dynamic and Progressive World." 

By March, Ad Week was headlining M&M'S Global VP Jane Hwang "on Evolving and Future-Proofing Your Brand." (This is future-proofing, if you consider a corporate version of "The Last of Us" to be where you wanted your brand to end up.) 

That innovative campaign saw an update to the look of iconic characters and the introduction of a new purple character. It also included a corporate partnership with bizarre musical performer Lil Nas X, known for sexual videos and marketing his "Satan Shoes," made with a real drop of blood. Mars described him as a "musical superstar." It left out the satanic stuff, of course.

The custom candies featured "images of butterflies, hearts and photos of Lil Nas X." Shockingly, there were no pentagrams and goats’ heads. Someone in marketing slipped up. M&Ms didn’t even team up with the Church of Satan. All that happened under the press release headline: "M&M'S® Partners With Lil Nas X To Bring People Together Through Music, Art And Entertainment." 

When the purple M was introduced in September, it had deliberate woke appeal. Ad Week again showed the Mars agenda: "M&M's Introduces a New Mascot All About Inclusivity."

Finally, Mars admitted defeat, its iconic spokescandides mere shells of their former selves. Actress/comedian Maya Rudolph is taking their place and appearing in a new Super Bowl ad.

Even fellow lefties at The Washington Post were skeptical of the whole situation. "Was this the peanut-centered capitulation to the anti-woke crowd that the brand (maybe) wants us to think? Or just another marketing stunt?" 

Most likely a bit of both. Mars is trying to make the best of a disastrous campaign driving its customers away. But by picking Rudolph who plays Vice President Kamala Harris on "Saturday Night Live," they are still appeasing the woke audience. They are just hiding it better. 

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None of this is surprising. Corporate ESG (Environmental, social, and governance) policies are determined to wokeify every corporation that the left hasn’t already conquered. Corporate leftists don’t care if their moves offend the customers. They just have to appease their buddies on the left and in the legacy media, not that they are very different. 

The Washington Redskins switch also offended core customers. The cancelation came on top of decades of team incompetence and scandal. It wasn’t even important to Native Americans to change the name, just Washington Post zealots.

And the attacks on Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben were so ridiculous they even generated a "Saturday Night Live" skit that mocked the decision. Ironically, Jemima was played by new M&M spokesperson Rudolph.

The expression, "go woke, go broke," doesn’t exactly apply here. People will still eat M&Ms. Mars just foolishly followed in the footsteps of other failed marketers and undermined consumer loyalty for their product. The very icons they spent decades building up got torn down in a few months. 

But, hey, it’s woke. And that’s all that matters. 

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Authorities in California have provided an update on the weapons used in the Monterey Park mass shooting, where a shooter fired into a crowd of people at a dance studio during Lunar New Year celebrations Saturday night, leaving 12 dead and several others wounded.

During a press conference on Wednesday evening, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said two weapons that were recovered near the Star Dance Ballroom Studio in Monterey Park, California included a Cobray Company semi-automatic 9mm MAC-10 and a Norinco 7.62 x 25mm pistol.

The MAC-10 weapon was the primary weapon used to carry out the shooting, as 72-year-old suspect Huu Can Tran is believed to have stood at the door and fired off 42 rounds, killing 11 people.

The weapon also had a modification to its trigger, although it is not clear if the weapon was modified to be fully automatic. It is being tested by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Luna said.

11 MONTEREY PARK, CALIFORNIA, SHOOTING VICTIMS IDENTIFIED BY LA CORONER

A photo of the weapon shown during the press conference appeared to show a silencer or suppressor attached to its barrel. The attachment seemed to have a cloth or another material wrapped around the barrel.

A MAC-10 is typically illegal to own in California, which has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the U.S., especially on "assault weapons." However, a Californian is allowed to legally possess a weapon that is later outlawed.

Luna did not specify when the weapon was obtained or whether its ownership was illegal.

The sheriff also said the weapon had a 30-round magazine and that the shooter swapped magazines at some point during his assault. Large capacity magazines, defined by California law as anything carrying more than 10 rounds, are illegal in the state.

A magazine swap on the weapon can happen within seconds, a firearm expert in the state of California informed Fox News Digital. 

A resident can, similar to an outlawed weapon, legally keep in their possession any large-capacity magazine if it was obtained before Jan. 1, 2000, Reuters reported.

FIRST VICTIMS IDENTIFIED FOLLOWING MONTEREY PARK, CALIFORNIA, MASS SHOOTING

After his assault, police said the shooter fled the ballroom and used the Norinco, which was properly registered, to take his own life.

Capt. Andrew Meyer from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau said police have video from inside the dance studio but that its graphic contents would not be released at this time.

Investigators also obtained a warrant for the suspect’s home, where they found a Savage Arms .308 caliber bolt action rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

The rifle is considered a hunting sports rifle and is legal in the state. The abundance of ammunition is also legal to own and is common across California.

During the press conference, Luna said the suspected gunman had not been to the Star Ballroom in the past five years and that any connection to the victims was not immediately clear. 

The suspect was arrested in 1997 for illegal possession of a firearm, Luna said. He is Vietnamese and previously lived in China and Hong Kong. A motorcycle was also placed at the scene by the presumed shooter at some point before the shooting. Police believe this may have been staged as a getaway vehicle. 

The victims that were killed Saturday night have been identified as Valentino Alvero, 68, Hong Jian, 62, Yu Kao, 72, Lilian Li, 63, Ming Wei Ma, 72, My Nhan, 65, Diana Tom, 72, Muoi Ung, 67, Chia Yau, 76, Wen Yu, 64, and Xiujuan Yu, 57.

The U.S. Constitution recognizes Americans have a fundamental right to own firearms and the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld this right.