In 1996 or so, my friend KD realized that since the roman numeral for the then approaching millennium was “MM”, there would be a natural promotional tie in for M & M’s candy come y2k. Naturally, Mars Inc. couldn’t pass such a thing up, naming M&M’s “the official spokescandies of the new millennium” in early 1998. This promotion was probably effective for Mars, but I don’t remember it making that big of a splash (a few hoaxes aside) or ever becoming that irritating.
This will not be the case, however, with the next Roman-numeral related promotion that we will undoubtedly need to endure come next winter: SuperBowl XL. You can just hear the announcers gushing over lines like “the biggest SuperBowl ever”, “one size bigger” or some other bad “extra-large” reference.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.