It’s a little known fact that Nestor Bynum, President and CEO of the Mars Company personally turned down Steven Spielberg’s request to feature Mars’s M&Ms in a most positive light in his 1982 film “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.” Bynum’s woefully inept decision resulted in The Hershey Company approving the same request for their Reese’s Pieces, sales of which skyrocketed upon the film’s release.
After hearing of Bynum’s inexplicably dense business decision, he was summarily fired by his Board of Directors.
Landing on his feet, however, Bynum soon headed the Fava Bean Growers of America, where – determined not to make the same mistake twice – he hurriedly approved without review Orion Pictures’ request for a fava beans mention in an upcoming film. Sadly, that mention was 1991’s “The Silence of The Lambs,” specifically Hannibal Lecter’s line “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” Fava bean sales plummeted to record lows, never fully recovering.
BILL
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