AUSTIN, Texas — Guest passengers on Air Force One get a unique gift snack: Presidential M&Ms.
The customized pack of M&M's, the official candy of the White House, features red, white and blue decorations, the Presidential Seal, a printed signature of the current president and an anthropomorphic M&M mascot waving the American flag.
Presidents giving away small, token gifts on Air Force One is a decades-old tradition that started with the Kennedy administration. Air Force One guests would receive a package of 20 cigarettes in a box marked with the Presidential Seal and the president's signature. The cigarettes also came with a customized matchbook.
The tradition of giving away cigarettes to guests and members of the press flying Air Force One continued for more than 20 years, until the Reagan administration did away with the cigarettes in 1981. According to an article by Thrillist, it was First Lady Nancy Reagan who banned cigarettes from Air Force One.
In 1988, the White House asked the Mars Company to design the special box of M&M's for President Ronald Reagan's trip to the 1999 Moscow summit. Nancy Reagan gave the M&M's out to school children, according to a 1991 article by The New Republic.
Every president since then has offered the special M&M boxes to Air Force One guests. New boxes are printed with each change of administration, featuring the current president's signature. President Barack Obama even started giving them out to kids – and only kids – at the White House on Halloween, according to Time Magazine.
Collectors regularly list packets of the M&M's for sale on websites like eBay and Etsy for much more than the price of a normal snack-size package of M&M's.
No matter what happens in the 2024 election, no matter who becomes the next president of the United States, Air Force One flyers can reliably expect a single-serving size of M&M's to eat or to collect and cherish.
