Millennials may look jaded, but they use their phones to escape and have fun. Memes, cat videos and laughing babies spread like wildfire, and celebrations like birthdays seem to go on forever as a counterbalance to a world that can be hard and scary.

Such “enjoyable escapism” is uniquely useful to M&M’S, a brand that has stood for Spontaneous Fun for decades. Brought to life by the category’s only anthropomorphic characters, the candy literally “has fun” with its fans, as if it were itself a friend.

The goal was to select covers that are recognizable to fans and would allow the M&M’s characters to showcase their distinctive personalities. Depending on the style, a specific artist was chosen. Ema Lupacchino captured the beauty of Green in a graphic design styled She-Hulk while Tom Grummett depicted the nervousness of Orange in a Marvel classic, Ant-Man cover layout.

Once the layouts were set to match the original covers, the artists inserted the M&M’S character using tight pencils, inks and colors. The color pallets were set to match the original covers, and artists were given the freedom to interpret the M&M’s logo in hand-drawn styles that mimicked the old Marvel logos.

Every color choice, pose, character selection, facial expression and logo redesign was done with the goal of capturing the humor of the M&Ms personalities in a true Marvel cover style.

In addition to the comics sold, limited-edition posters of the covers were given away at major comic conventions, and are currently for sale on eBay for up to $35 apiece.

M&M’S achieved an increase in penetration among all age segments and among A18-34 specifically with + 0.7 points. M&M’S outpaced the category among Millennials for the first time in more than five years.

Most importantly, “Celebrate with M” made M&M’S the #1 chocolate candy brand in the US (non seasonal).