What Happened to Skittles?!?
Remember those mythical Skittles commercials that used to air years ago? You know, where kids would chase the rainbow and it would reward them by raining candy. What happened to those days? Sure, they may have been a little cheesy, but at least I can see how they appealed to kids.
The more recent Skittles ads are very hit-or-miss. The ads are geared toward teens, and they try to achieve a comical appeal. Until I began researching the new spots, I completely hated them. Each commercial that I had witnessed firsthand left me sitting on the couch, semi-disgusted and extremely confused. To understand where I’m coming from, below are several Skittles spots I’ve seen over the last few weeks:
I understand the whole “believe in the rainbow” concept - I just don’t see how the ads could possibly make you want some Skittles…at all. As I browsed the Skittles commercials online, I remembered just how strange they were. To give them some credit, this ad made me laugh without being disturbed. It also had some pretty cool art direction and impressive effects. I think I would like the campaign a bit more had it featured more spots similar to this:
To be honest, I really wanted to bury the entire Skittles campaign until I found this last ad. However, one ad isn’t enough for me to pull a ‘180′ on the brand. I will still grumble when I see one of these commercials on TV, and I will still bring up the campaign when discussing advertising that I dislike. I just hope that after writing about this campaign I don’t come down with the Skittles touch…my keyboard is still here so I think I’m going to be alright.
