Tl;dr from my memory. Numbers are estimates. Van Halen, at the time, were doing the largest stadium stage show ever. Most tours were 2 semi-trucks of speakers

Tl;dr from my memory. Numbers are estimates. Van Halen, at the time, were doing the largest stadium stage show ever. Most tours were 2 semi-trucks of speakers and lighting, VH were ~10+. Due to the never before done scale of the show rigging weight limits are critical. Not following it could lead to a stage collapse. VH put the brown M&M’s in the middle of the weight requirement rider. This way the production crew could easily see if the local producer actually read the rider by seeing a bowl of brown M&M’s.