0:05

It's Thursday, February ninth

0:08

twenty twenty three. I'm Jack in Bird

0:10

today. An extra long

0:13

episode for you featuring the

0:15

history of the M and M's Spokescandies

0:18

and why we care about them so much.

0:21

Plus, code breakers have just decrypted

0:23

over fifty lost letters

0:26

from Mary Queen of Scots. And

0:28

another Valentine's Day campaign

0:31

to help you enact revenge on

0:33

your ex. This time, with

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a surprise scorpion. Here's

0:38

some cool stuff for your ride home.

0:42

According to a recent morning consult

0:44

survey Gen Z adults top

0:47

five favorite brands in

0:49

order are YouTube, Google,

0:52

Netflix, Amazon and

0:55

M and M's. That's right.

0:57

M and M's cracked the top five

1:00

as the only food brand.

1:02

The next food brands on the list

1:04

aren't until number eight when you get

1:06

Doritos followed by KitKat,

1:08

Oreo, and Gatorade. But M

1:11

and M's is up there in the top five

1:13

with Netflix and Google. That's

1:15

pretty impressive, especially for

1:18

a brand that frequently causes such

1:20

a with changes to their

1:22

anthropomorphic mascots. And

1:24

ahead of the Super Bowl this weekend,

1:26

M and M's is taking full advantage

1:29

of the battles they've bird in the culture

1:31

wars over the past couple of years.

1:34

So I wanted to take some time to dive

1:36

into the history of the M and M's

1:38

mascots and why

1:40

some people have such strong

1:42

feelings about them. So

1:44

M and M's entered production in nineteen

1:47

forty one. Rip off of

1:49

an existing British candy and

1:51

an ultimately soured collaboration

1:53

between the sons of two of the biggest

1:55

candy makers of the twentieth century. MM's

1:58

and Hershey. Forrest

2:01

Mars senior son of

2:03

Frank Mars Thu founded the Mars company

2:06

So the story goes, saw British

2:08

soldiers eating smarties, not

2:10

like the chalky US candy tablets,

2:12

but their own candy covered chocolates

2:14

that look very similar to M and M's.

2:17

Forest Mars saw soldiers eating

2:19

smarties during the Spanish Civil War.

2:21

And he thought the way that those candies

2:23

could stay preserved in warm weather

2:25

without melting was ingenious. So

2:28

he quickly came up with his own version that

2:30

he acquired a US patent for.

2:33

But he needed more chocolate

2:35

to pull them off. Chocolate that

2:38

Hershey's had because for whatever

2:40

reason, that company wasn't currently subject

2:42

to rationing. So Forest

2:44

Mars teamed up with Bruce Murray, the

2:46

son of William Murray, who was then

2:48

president of Hershey's. Both

2:51

of them had bad working and

2:53

personal relationships with their fathers

2:55

So the idea of coming up with something

2:57

innovative together seemed to appeal

2:59

to them. So Murray and

3:02

MM's, that's how we get n

3:04

and n's. Their

3:06

good working relationship wouldn't last

3:08

however. After several years of increasing

3:11

conflict between the two of them, Murray

3:13

took a million dollar buyout just

3:15

to get away from Mars. Despite

3:18

the contentious beginning, M and M's

3:20

have frequently been one of the best

3:22

selling candies in the US and a

3:24

huge seller around the world. They

3:27

were even the first candy to go to

3:29

space. Onboard the Columbia

3:31

Space Shuttle in nineteen eighty one.

3:33

Import from having a solid product

3:35

that has managed a good balance of sticking

3:38

to what it does best, experimenting with

3:40

new flavors and colors over the years, I

3:42

would argue that one of the reasons M and

3:44

M's has had such lasting success

3:46

is down to the success of

3:48

their mascots or Spokescandies.

3:52

The plane and peanut M and

3:54

M's mass scots were first introduced in

3:56

nineteen fifty four as part

3:58

of the larger marketing campaign to introduce

4:01

peanuts as a new second option for

4:03

the candies. The commercials were

4:05

in black and white, so wasn't obvious

4:07

if they were red and yellow colored

4:09

yet respectively as the main

4:11

two mascots are now. And they

4:13

didn't yet have the personalities that

4:16

we would come to know from red and

4:18

yellow today. And a handful of

4:20

commercials that I dug up on YouTube, the candies

4:22

seemed to change voices and

4:24

personalities with each one.

4:27

In the first, the two candies have

4:29

high pitched voices, but no

4:31

really discernible genders. They

4:33

might have been trying to make them sort of androgynous

4:36

elves or MM's. In

4:38

the second, the plain candy has

4:40

taken on more of a feminine lilt.

4:42

To her voice and movements, while

4:44

the peanut one now has a deep

4:47

southern draw. And and

4:49

yet another commercial, they both have deep

4:51

voices, but the peanut one stays

4:53

southern because they were really leaning

4:55

into the peanut m and m's being made

4:57

with Southern peanuts roasted

5:00

to a golden tan. Over

5:02

the years, those two mascots continued

5:04

to find their footing and eventually

5:06

their colors sticking around in the

5:08

brand's advertising for decades,

5:11

all the way up to the early nineties when

5:13

they got a CGI makeover.

5:15

With that makeover, wouldn't it just come in

5:17

the form of CGI? Adweek

5:20

recently spoke to Susan Credell and Steve

5:22

Rutter two former creative partners

5:24

at the advertising agency BBDO Thu

5:26

were responsible for creating the

5:28

additional M and M characters who

5:31

were added to the lineup in the mid nineties.

5:34

Rutter says that when they were hired, those

5:36

two candy mascots were, quote, met

5:38

incarnates. End quotes.

5:42

Credible and rudder wanted to give them more

5:44

personality, distinct personalities,

5:47

a unique one for each color in the bag.

5:49

And they looked two popular TV shows

5:51

of the day, cheers, seinfeld,

5:54

friends, to come up with those archetypal

5:56

personality trade that makes any

5:58

good comedy scene flow. Quoting

6:01

Adweek, Mars agreed the Spokescandies

6:04

could be less than perfect creatures rather

6:06

than shameless corporate shells. They

6:09

would be short, possess no

6:11

magical powers, and wear gloves at

6:13

all times. They would deal with the

6:15

same limitations we all deal

6:17

with. Red

6:20

became the kind of angry, manipulative,

6:23

occasionally, misogynistic, leading

6:25

man, yellow was his chill,

6:27

oblivious sidekick. A classic

6:29

odd couple. So long as you adhere to their

6:32

personality traits, any commercial

6:34

would pretty much write itself. Due

6:37

to budget constraints, the rest of the cast of

6:39

characters weren't introduced all at once,

6:41

but rolled out one by one over time.

6:44

Blue was introduced as the cool

6:46

M and M, always more effortlessly

6:48

successful than red and yellow Thu

6:51

came up with elaborate antics to try to

6:53

be as cool and physically blue

6:55

colored as he was. Notably,

6:57

blue's personality was simply cool

7:00

because he was the color that had been voted

7:02

on to be added to M and M's by the public

7:04

in nineteen ninety five. Orange

7:07

the M and M that represented Crispy

7:09

and later pretzel versions is

7:12

neurotic as personality trait.

7:14

As the nostalgia critic on YouTube pointed

7:16

out, he's basically the realistic portrayal

7:19

of what would happen if M and M's or

7:21

any mascots like pigs who advertise

7:23

barbecue restaurants, realized

7:26

just how messed up their existence was

7:28

and exactly what they were advertising. But

7:31

interestingly, Gretel revealed to Adweek

7:33

that their original plan was

7:36

for Orange to be a female M and

7:38

M. Specifically, one modeled

7:40

after classic fiery haired comics

7:43

like Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett.

7:46

Now, I don't know why orange had

7:48

to be the Crispy M and M,

7:50

but because it did for whatever reason, Criddle

7:52

and Rutter had to abandon their female

7:55

comic plan because research

7:57

came out that showed people loved

8:00

the Crispy M and MM's, even preferring

8:02

them to plain and peanuts. So

8:05

the conceit of the character became

8:07

that the character was terrified of

8:09

being eaten. Credder and Rudder

8:11

didn't want the first female Spokescandies

8:13

to be a nervous wreck. So

8:16

they made orange a neurotic guy

8:18

and focused on a new green

8:20

character for the first female M and

8:22

M. And here is where

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sometime in the nineteen seventies, a

11:30

rumor got started that green M

11:32

and M's were Afrodiacs. No

11:35

one really knows why this rumor got

11:37

started and everyone has different explanations

11:40

for why people thought it was true.

11:43

Some say it had to do with the particular

11:46

dye used in the coloring. Others

11:48

that the color green is just symbolic

11:51

of fertility. M and M's

11:53

insists that it is not true, but

11:55

the rumor was well known enough

11:57

to be referenced in at least one M

11:59

and M's commercial after the green

12:02

M and M Spokescandies was introduced. But

12:04

whether that rumor informed the choice

12:06

of the green M and M to not only

12:09

be a woman character, but to be a

12:11

woman who is fully in touch with her

12:13

sexuality and constantly turning

12:15

heads, I don't know. Kretel,

12:18

the woman who created the green M

12:20

and M, had this to say. Quote,

12:22

I wanted her to be a strong woman.

12:25

It was comfortable with her sexuality and

12:27

empowered by it. If you go back

12:29

and look at the work, she's always in

12:31

control. She's always finding the other characters

12:34

ridiculous and quotes.

12:37

Which is true. Some over the years

12:39

have claimed that the sexy green

12:41

M and M isn't a front to women. But

12:43

just as many, if not more, have

12:46

loved her for being a strong, confident,

12:48

and sexy female character. In

12:51

fact, when M and M's decided this time

12:53

last year to do their big rebrand,

12:55

which mostly amounted to green and

12:57

the newer MM's Brown M and M wearing

12:59

more sensible shoes. A lot of

13:02

people were upset that Greene wasn't

13:04

allowed to express herself anymore.

13:07

Gretel recounted her initial response

13:09

to the news to Adweek quote,

13:12

are you telling me if I wear cool,

13:14

fashionable, interesting shoes? I've somehow

13:16

done something bad for my sex, my

13:18

gender. I thought it was a hit

13:21

on her, which I didn't like, end

13:23

quote. But even

13:25

Gretel admits, the white knee

13:27

high go go boots that the green M and M

13:29

originally wore, which got stripped away

13:31

in favor of comfy sneakers last year,

13:34

weren't even the original plan. Quoting

13:37

again from Adweek. When developing

13:39

the character, Gretel and Rutter wanted green

13:41

to be in heels. Unfortunately,

13:44

the CGI wasn't advanced enough.

13:46

All attempts made green look like

13:49

she had garden hoses for legs,

13:51

said Gretel. Running short on

13:53

time, Gretel said someone headed to store

13:55

on Fifth Avenue, to buy a pair of

13:57

white boots, which the graphic designers

13:59

used as inspiration for green's

14:01

footwear. Problem solved, As

14:04

Gretel remembers thinking back then, just

14:06

put her in some boots so we don't have to deal

14:08

with that whole ankle foot thing. End

14:11

quote. As each

14:13

of the new characters was rolled out, the

14:15

newly CGI, M and M's Spokescandies,

14:18

also took on a slightly more

14:20

adult personality. Gone

14:22

were the Anadine cartoons delightfully

14:24

twirping about their candy coating. In

14:27

the nineties, the M and M's frequently

14:29

found themselves in settings

14:31

with a slew of celebrities, flirting,

14:34

removing their shells, and addressing

14:37

accusations of cannibalism head

14:39

on. They were also voiced

14:41

by familiar celebrities like John Lovett's

14:43

and John Goodman, and nowadays by

14:45

JK Simmons, as yellow, Vanessa

14:47

Williams, as miss Brown, and Amber Roth

14:49

thin as purple, the newest edition

14:52

just last fall. Their

14:54

visual redesign and initial overall

14:56

ad campaign with the new CGI characters

14:58

in the nineties was helmed by Will

15:01

Venture, the animator, most famous,

15:03

for creating the California raisins.

15:06

The new comedic take with

15:08

each M and M's individual personality really

15:11

coming through in every single

15:13

thirty second spot really

15:15

worked Anne has continued now

15:17

for almost thirty years. Characters

15:19

have been added, shoes have changed,

15:22

but pretty much everything else has stayed

15:24

the same. Because it just

15:26

works. As the nostalgia critic

15:28

put it, quote, we know the personalities of

15:30

these timeless characters like we know,

15:33

Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. Characters

15:35

we had almost ten minutes at time to get acquainted

15:37

with. But with these guys, we only had

15:39

thirty seconds. Thirty seconds

15:41

to make a connection and we still

15:43

feel like we know these characters inside

15:46

and out, end quotes. We

15:48

feel like we know these characters. Which

15:51

is perhaps why it's easy to feel

15:53

so passionate when the head honchos

15:56

make changes to them. There

15:58

was the rebrand I mentioned at the start of

16:00

twenty twenty Thu, in which the

16:02

ampersand in the logo was more

16:04

emphasized. Characters were given

16:06

more multidimensional backstories and

16:09

those shoes were swapped out to be

16:11

more sensible and less sexy.

16:13

M and M's said in the initial announcement

16:16

of the rebrand that it was all about, quote,

16:18

reflecting the more dynamic, progressive

16:20

world that we live in end quote.

16:23

And since they dropped that p word

16:26

and also mentioned a vision of the future in which

16:28

society is inclusive. Some

16:30

people like Tucker Carlson lost

16:32

their minds. Carlson said

16:34

at the time, quote, m and ms will

16:37

not be satisfied until every last

16:39

cartoon character is deeply unappealing

16:41

and totally androgynous. End

16:44

quotes. But many feminists

16:46

actually agreed, although for slightly

16:48

different reasons, Kelsey Weekman said

16:51

slightly tongue in cheek for BuzzFeed

16:53

News at the time, quote, will

16:55

the woke agenda never cease to discriminate

16:57

against beautiful women like the green

16:59

and brown M and M's, let the

17:01

cartoon candy be hot, and

17:03

let all the other characters be whatever

17:06

they're meant to be as well. End quote.

17:09

More recently, several different Fox

17:11

News shows devoted multiple segments to

17:13

raging against an M and MM's campaign

17:16

celebrating women who are flipping

17:18

the status quo. Before the campaign,

17:20

M and M's introduced limited edition packages,

17:23

featuring the three women, M and M's,

17:25

green, brown, and purple, flipped

17:27

upside down on the packaging so that

17:29

the m's on their bellies became

17:31

w's for women. This

17:34

completely banal celebration of

17:36

women was somehow interpreted as

17:38

supporting the trans agenda by the

17:41

Fox News talking heads and led

17:43

to several days of renewed

17:45

M and M's discourse. Eventually,

17:47

resulting in M and M's, putting out a

17:49

statement saying that they are retiring

17:52

the Spokescandies indefinitely. The

17:55

company wrote on social media in January,

17:57

quote, America, let's

18:00

talk. In the last year, we've made some

18:02

changes to our beloved Spokes candies. We

18:04

weren't sure if anyone would even notice. And

18:06

we definitely didn't think it would break

18:08

the Internet. But now we get it.

18:11

Even a candy's shoes can be

18:13

polarizing. Which was the last thing

18:15

M and M's wanted since we're all about bringing

18:17

people together. Therefore, we

18:19

have decided to take an indefinite pause

18:22

from the Spokescandies. In their place,

18:24

we are proud to introduce a spokesperson America

18:27

can agree on, the beloved Maya

18:29

Rudolph. We're confident, MM's Rudolph

18:31

will champion the power of fun to create

18:33

a world where everyone feels they belong.

18:36

End quote, Despite

18:39

the fervor after this announcement that

18:41

the culture wars got the M and M's

18:43

Spokescandies canceled, a few

18:45

people, including myself, checked

18:48

the calendar and realized that

18:50

this was almost certainly just

18:52

a stunt leading up to a probably

18:55

underwhelming Super Bowl ad.

18:57

Not unlike when planters killed off

19:00

mister Peanuts. And indeed,

19:02

M and M's confirmed it as such

19:04

few days later in public statements

19:07

as well as in the tone of the

19:09

ensuing Maya Rudolph ads that

19:11

have been running. These ads

19:13

include Rudolph renaming the M

19:15

and M's manyas like

19:18

Maya Get It and putting

19:21

her face on the M and M's instead

19:23

of the classic m. She took it even

19:25

further last week by announcing that

19:27

the candies will now be filled with

19:30

clams instead of chocolate.

19:32

Candy coated clam bites It's

19:35

so bizarre. Why clams? What does

19:37

that have to do with anything? I don't know

19:39

and I really love it. The

19:42

Super Bowl ad itself is set

19:44

to show the former Spokescandies

19:46

pursuing other jobs now that

19:48

they've lost their gig as shills for

19:50

M and MM's. Sorry. Monoz.

19:53

Because Super Bowl ads now premier

19:55

and get reviewed, before the game even

19:57

happens, we have all the details on

19:59

exactly what each character has been

20:01

up to. I'm kind of a purist

20:04

about Super Bowl ads though and try to

20:06

avoid spoilers on the commercials ahead

20:08

of their in game debut. And,

20:10

yes, I am aware of how ridiculous

20:12

that sounds, but it is also ridiculous

20:15

that these commercials get released before

20:17

the Super Bowl. Anyways,

20:19

if you want the details on the M and M's

20:21

Spokescandies interim jobs,

20:23

you can read the link in the show notes or

20:25

just tune in on Sunday. Here's

20:29

what I'm more interested in. Putting

20:31

the Spokescandies on indefinite pause

20:33

and hiring Maya Rudolph as spokesperson

20:36

instead was all part of a larger

20:38

ad campaign for the Super Bowl, not a

20:40

genuine response to all of the backlash

20:42

generated by some of the decisions imminent

20:44

has made with their spoke's candies in past

20:46

year. But how

20:49

engineered was that backlash?

20:52

Did they intentionally do a FO

20:54

progressive thing to anger the right

20:56

and make the left roll their eyes so hard

20:58

they had to tweet about it or

21:01

was the disproportionate in an outrage

21:03

that came from the upside down women

21:06

M and M's just lucky happenstance.

21:09

I think they probably got inspired

21:11

to run this kind of campaign after all

21:13

the initial backlash around desexifying

21:16

the Green M and M back in January of

21:18

twenty twenty two. I mean,

21:21

how much more of a brand win

21:23

can you get than both sides

21:25

of the ideological aisle passionately

21:27

posting about you for days on end.

21:30

The upside down m's campaign celebrating

21:33

women might have been

21:35

the very for step of their overall

21:37

Super Bowl campaign, a sort of

21:39

soft launch to sew the seeds of

21:41

discord and make their announcement pack

21:44

that much more punch. But I don't

21:46

think even they realized how much

21:48

of a meltdown it would cause. At

21:50

the end of the day, this is some pretty

21:53

clever marketing. And it's level of

21:55

manipulation of current cultural

21:57

divides that couldn't be as effectively

21:59

pulled off if they hadn't spent decades

22:02

familiarizing the public with these characters.

22:05

As colonel told Adweek, quote, if

22:07

imminent is about providing fun

22:09

and if one of the things that's not fun

22:11

right now is cancel culture. What

22:13

a beautiful brief. Pick something

22:15

that's unfun and fun it up

22:18

and quote. And hey,

22:20

if their whole mission is simply to get people

22:22

talking about M and M's, it's

22:24

certainly working. I mean, I

22:26

just spent an entire segment

22:28

discussing it. The longest segment

22:31

I have ever written in the history

22:33

of this show, well

22:35

played M and M's I'm

22:43

currently reading a historical fiction

22:45

novel by Al Johnson Epstein called

22:47

a tip for the hangman. It's

22:50

about Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlow

22:52

working as a spy for the queen.

22:55

Something the Shakespeare Contemporary is

22:57

widely believed to have actually done.

23:00

In the novel, much of his spy

23:02

work consists of decoding encrypted

23:04

messages sent between Mary

23:06

Queen of Scots and her allies, largely

23:09

surrounding plots to overthrow or

23:11

even assassinate her cousin, Queen Elizabeth

23:14

first. So you can imagine

23:16

my surprise when having put aside

23:18

the novel after my morning reading and

23:20

turning to the day's news, I saw

23:22

headlines announcing that several

23:25

lost letters from Mary Queen of Scots

23:27

had recently been found and successfully

23:30

decoded by modern code breakers.

23:33

Publishing their findings yesterday in the journal,

23:36

cryptologia, The team whose

23:38

expertise range from cryptography and

23:40

computer science to physics and

23:42

patents say they didn't

23:44

know who the author of the fit fifty

23:47

seven letters was until

23:49

they were able to break the cipher. And

23:51

for some historical background, quoting

23:54

Yuri Galert, One of the sixteenth

23:56

century's most famous historical figures,

23:58

Mary was first in line of succession to the

24:00

English throne after her cousin Elizabeth.

24:03

Catholics considered Mary to be the legitimate

24:06

sovereign, and Elizabeth had her imprisoned

24:08

for nineteen years because she was seen

24:11

as a threat. Mary was eventually

24:13

executed aged forty four for her

24:15

alleged part in a plot to kill Elizabeth.

24:18

During her time in captivity, Mary

24:20

communicated with her associates and allies

24:22

through extensive efforts to recruit messengers

24:25

and to maintain secrecy. End

24:27

quote, Many of these

24:29

letters have been found over the years and are

24:31

held in various archives, but it's also

24:33

been known that a good number are missing.

24:36

And this newfound batch in particular has

24:38

already provided new information. Like

24:41

Mary having been in contact with the French

24:44

ambassador to England Michelle Di Castell

24:46

know the move is the air six years

24:48

earlier than previously believed. Now

24:51

that might not sound like that much of a finding,

24:53

but for historians who focus on

24:55

Mary Queen of Scots, this edition

24:57

of fifty thousand words

24:59

to their bank of evidence is huge.

25:02

One expert John Guy said, quote,

25:04

this discovery is a literary and

25:07

historical sensation. This

25:09

is the most important new find on

25:11

Mary Queen of Scots's for a hundred years.

25:13

I'd always wondered if Castell knows originals

25:16

could turn up one day, perhaps in

25:18

the Bileotec national to France. Or

25:20

perhaps somewhere else unidentified because

25:23

of the cifiran. And now they

25:25

have end quote, And

25:28

as one of the authors of the new paper, one

25:30

of the code breakers explained, they

25:32

just broke the code and provided summaries

25:34

of the letters. Historians will be

25:36

the ones who will be able to fill in all the gaps

25:39

and really come up with the meanings behind

25:41

all the letters. As for

25:43

how they found the letters and cracked the

25:45

code, the three code breakers stumbled

25:48

on them at the National Library of France's

25:50

online archives for encypher documents,

25:53

BBVA Tech National de France. Quoting

25:55

again from Eureka Alerts, the B and

25:57

F catalog listed the letters as from

25:59

the first half half of the sixteenth century

26:01

and related to Italian matters.

26:04

However, the study authors say they quickly

26:06

realized after starting to crack the code

26:09

that they were written in French and had

26:11

nothing to do with Italy. Their

26:13

detective work revealed verbs and adverbs

26:15

often in the feminine form, several

26:17

mentions of captivity and

26:20

the name Walsingham, which arose

26:22

the suspicion that they might be from

26:24

Mary Queen of Scots, end quote.

26:27

Sir Francis Walzinem was Queen Elizabeth's

26:30

Spymaster and therefore one of the

26:32

primary antagonists to Mary.

26:34

The code breakers are part of the decrypt

26:37

project, which focuses on the decryption

26:39

of historical manuscripts, and they explained

26:41

to vice's motherboard how computer

26:44

algorithms have completely changed

26:46

the game in code breaking. Co

26:48

author George 0209 said, quote, Historically,

26:51

such codes were solved manually with

26:54

a lot of trial and error. But

26:56

this could take from days or weeks

26:58

up to months or never. The

27:00

computerized process is in a sense

27:02

similar to the manual one except

27:05

that we're doing it mechanically less relying

27:07

on human intuition. And

27:09

continuing from vice, quote, while

27:11

the code used in Stuart's letters was

27:13

relatively complex, the authors

27:15

wrote in the study that it still followed a typical

27:18

pattern of the time. Which included

27:20

using homophones, nonword symbols

27:22

used to represent letters in the alphabet

27:25

and a nomenclature. Symbols representing

27:27

commonly used names or words. In

27:30

the paper, the authors wrote that these symbols

27:32

could include geometrical shapes, Latin

27:34

or Greek letters Alchemy and astronomy

27:37

symbols, letter variants, and Arabic

27:39

figures, end quote, which,

27:42

for the record, is very similar to

27:44

how Mary Queen of Scots Cyphers are

27:46

represented in the novel that I am

27:48

currently reading, so props to

27:50

the author Alison Epstein on some

27:52

impressively accurate research. But

27:55

unlike in the novel in which Christopher

27:57

Marlow pulls all nighters for several

27:59

months to crack the code, this

28:01

team used an algorithm, which,

28:04

quote, began by approximating the

28:06

deciphering of Stewart's letters to

28:08

solving a problem of optimization. In

28:11

other words, solving how to get increasingly

28:13

close to a readable solution by

28:16

producing and then refining random

28:18

keys. End quote, And

28:20

once the algorithm cracked most of the homophones,

28:23

the humans manually decoded the nomenclature.

28:26

As vice points out, the encrypted letters

28:28

of marries that were coded in

28:30

her time are what ultimately led to

28:32

her execution because the letters

28:34

included an alleged assassination attempt

28:37

on Queen Elizabeth. And given

28:39

that we are four hundred years removed

28:41

from that, these decoded letters

28:43

are unlikely to hold quite the same

28:45

level of bombshell. But it is

28:48

still a huge boon for historians.

28:56

Well, on Tuesday, I told

28:58

you about the San Antonio Zoo's

29:00

annual name a cockroach after

29:02

your ex and will feed it to one of our animals

29:05

campaign. And now there is

29:07

another company getting in on the revenge

29:09

game this Valentine's Day Tobochiko,

29:12

makers of the best seltzer, is

29:15

selling candy coated scorpions

29:18

inside of heart shaped boxes

29:20

that you can send to your ex for a

29:22

creepy surprise. According

29:25

to Adweek, the scorpions are ethically

29:27

sourced. Safe to eat and coated

29:29

in toobuchico's signature strawberry

29:32

guava flavor. The scorpions

29:35

will go on sale tomorrow Friday the tenth

29:37

at eight AM eastern for six

29:39

ninety nine a pop. This promotion

29:41

is technically being run by Topo Chico's

29:43

hard seltzer arm so you may need

29:45

to be over twenty one purchase or at

29:48

least to access the websites. The

29:50

scorpions will be on sale through Valentine's

29:52

Day while supplies last and they come with

29:54

a fifty percent off coupon on a twelve

29:57

pack of Topo Chico Hard seltzer. Brand

30:00

manager, Alex Ottenheimer, told Adweek,

30:02

quote, As a hard seltzer brand

30:04

that lives to provide the unexpected, we're

30:07

excited to bring folks a different way to

30:09

celebrate this traditionally red roses

30:11

and romance focused holiday. Based

30:13

on the success of our Valentine's Day,

30:16

send your ex a cactus campaign last

30:18

year, we wanted to go one step

30:20

further Thu create a real edible

30:23

Scorpion gift inspired by

30:25

our southwestern roots and signature

30:27

strawberry guava seltzer flavor. Honestly,

30:32

depending on who your ex is, this

30:34

sounds way more like a treat

30:36

than some kind of cruel trick,

30:38

especially if your ex is me.

30:41

I would absolutely love a

30:43

toppochiko branded edible scorpion.

30:46

Way more fun than a box of chocolates.

30:48

Although, I guess, Topo Chico is really

30:50

leaning into forest gumps, sage

30:53

words about chocolate boxes. You

30:55

really never know what you're

30:57

going to get. Well,

31:06

slight apologies for the extraordinary

31:09

length of the show today, but I

31:11

figured since we only have two episodes

31:14

left, today and tomorrow, baby,

31:16

that's okay. Plus, once I accidentally

31:19

wrote fifteen hundred more words

31:21

than usual about M and M's, I

31:23

knew I didn't want the second to last

31:26

episode ever to just

31:28

be about M and M's. I

31:30

still don't know how I wrote so much about

31:32

M and M's considering there's so much I feel

31:34

like I didn't include. But

31:37

yes, In case you missed it at the end

31:39

of yesterday's show, the cool stuff

31:41

ride home will be shutting down

31:43

on Friday the tenth, tomorrow.

31:46

That is kind of weird to be saying that, but

31:48

yes. And I will talk all

31:50

about it more tomorrow on our

31:52

final episode of all time.

31:55

For now, I just wanna leave you with one

31:57

little recommendation that I couldn't find a

31:59

way to shoehorn into the M and M

32:01

segments which is a green

32:04

M and M fan account on

32:06

Instagram that is completely

32:08

unhinged and entirely wonderful

32:11

link in the show notes to explore that,

32:13

but that is it from me for today.

32:16

This show was produced by ride home

32:18

media. I'm Jackson Bird. And I'll

32:20

talk to you again tomorrow.