Watch: Skittles Goes Black and White to Celebrate LGBT Pride
For decades, the slogan for the bright colored confectioneries Skittles has been "Taste the rainbow." But to celebrate LGBT Pride Month - specifically pride celebrations in London - the candies will go black and white, Ad Week reports.
"So this is kind of awkward, but we're just gonna go ahead and address the rainbow-colored elephant in the room," reads an open letter sent to publishers last week. "You have the rainbow ... we have the rainbow ... and usually that's just hunky-dory.
"But this Pride, only one rainbow deserves to be the centre of attention-yours," the message goes on to read. "And we're not going to be the ones to steal your rainbow thunder, no siree."
Ad Week writer Gabriel Beltrone seemed to have a bit of an issue with the new campaign, however, writing:
It's a clever twist on the brand's usual marketing, even if it's a bit disingenuous: Contrary to its rhetoric, Skittles' precise goal here was to steal some of Pride's "rainbow thunder," as the brand describes it, by leveraging interest in the event to draw more attention to itself.
Then again, that's part of the company's job, and it does it relatively tastefully here.
And the more mainstream marketers who loudly support the LGBT community, the better. Because what better proof of acceptance is there than becoming another demographic that corporations openly (and proudly) target?
Twitter's response to the new campaign seems to be divided.
Skittles also shared a video message to fans, explaining the decision to ditch the rainbow. Check the clip out below.