Purple, Pink Or Aqua?

Seven years after blue became a part of its chocolate rainbow, the maker of M&M's wants the world to decide on a new color from choices the Easter bunny might like.

The maker of the multicolored chocolate candies will add either purple, pink or aqua M&M's to the mix by August, said Bob Gamgort, vice president and general manager of chocolate for Hackettstown-based Masterfoods USA.

The company's market research shows that these three colors are consumers' top choices to add to the red, green, blue, yellow, brown and orange candies already in the bags, Gamgort said.

Masterfoods said it was advertising in 78 countries and taking votes on its Web site to decide what the new color will be. The site and a toll-free telephone number will take votes from March 6 to May 31, and the company will announce the winning color June 19.

Gamgort said the new color will be available in all flavors of M&M's in August through the end of the year, when the company will decide whether to include it permanently.

The company introduced the color blue in the same way in 1995.

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