Bud Light 2.0: Skittles Unveils Pro-LGBT, Drag Queen Campaign Aimed Toward Kids
As if you needed a reason to keep your kids away from candy, Skittles is now trying to turn impressionable children into pro-LGBT activists.
According to the U.K. Daily Mail, the candy brand was on the receiving end of a tide of backlash this week after the “Taste the Rainbow” folks took the whole rainbow theme a bit too far, partnering with gay activist group GLAAD to issue packaging with pro-transgender, pro-leftist messaging on them.
Among the messages on the packaging, which featured a drag queen on it, were the phrases “Black Trans Lives Matter” and “Joy is Resistance.”
The campaign was initially announced back in May, according to a post on Skittles’ Twitter account, which said there were multiple pro-LGBT limited-edition Skittles packages to be issued for Pride Month.
“We’re proud to partner with @GLAAD to continue celebrating and amplifying the LGBTQ+ community,” the brand said in a tweet announcing the packs, which did away with the brand’s signature
“Throughout May and June, we’ve partnered with LGBTQ+ artists to design and release five limited-edition SKITTLES packs that tell visual stories of Pride, and we’ll donate $1 for every Pride pack sold (up to $100,000) to GLAAD to back their ongoing efforts to work through media to support the LGBTQ+ community. We’ll be announcing additional ways we’re showing our support in the lead-up to #Pride2023. Stay tuned for more!”
We’re proud to partner with @GLAAD to continue celebrating and amplifying the LGBTQ+ community.
Throughout May and June, we’ve partnered with LGBTQ+ artists to design and release five limited-edition SKITTLES packs that tell visual stories of Pride, and we’ll donate $1 for every… pic.twitter.com/3oP43bldrh
— SKITTLES (@Skittles) May 3, 2023
Skittles didn’t exactly blow their own horn about the campaign — having learned from Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney experience that this wasn’t the kind of indoctrination that conservative America takes well to — but they didn’t back away, either.
And, while all five of the packages were silly, it was the one with “Black Trans Lives Matter” that ended up going viral after it was posted to popular account Libs of TikTok on Friday:
.@Skittles is trying to turn your kids into BLM & LGBTQ+ activists. Their packaging also features a drag queen.
Skittles have gone completely woke. pic.twitter.com/jjlkc7uOaL
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 11, 2023
Chaya Raichik — who started the Libs of TikTok account — asked if Skittles could “just like sell candy?” and included zoom-ins on the “Black Trans Lives Matter” and “Joy is Resistance” text:
Can skittles just like sell candy? Why do they have to inject this garbage? You’re a CANDY company ffs pic.twitter.com/oOCcIFEb7O
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) August 11, 2023
Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Etc.
Other Twitter users were similarly nonplussed:
WTF is this crap on a candy wrapper? pic.twitter.com/tSNwSuuzry
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) August 11, 2023
Great now I can’t eat skittles anymore.
— Lawson Crider (@LawsonCrider) August 12, 2023
Darn and I liked skittles too.
— Dizzie.eth (@DizzieBunny) August 12, 2023
E S G.
— Paleo Life (@PaleoGina) August 11, 2023
Mars Inc., which makes Skittles, had been contacted by the Daily Mail for comment but apparently hadn’t done so by the time of publication. What makes this somewhat hilarious is that both Mars and Skittles should have learned not to step in an LGBT-tastic mess after another advertising campaign for another of the company’s brands — M&M’s — backfired earlier this year.
In that case, after androgynous “spokescandies” for the chocolate candy brand got called out by conservatives, M&M’s apologized for the decision.
“America, let’s talk,” a January statement from the company said. “In the last year, we’ve made some changes to our spokescandies. We weren’t sure if anyone would even notice. And we definitely didn’t think it would break the internet. But now we get it — even a candy’s shoes can be polarizing.”
“Therefore, we have decided to take an indefinite pause from the spokescandies,” the statement added. “In their place, we are proud to introduce a spokesperson America can agree on: the beloved Maya Rudolph. We are confident Ms. Rudolph will champion the power of fun to create a world where everyone feels they belong.”
This was the statement the official Skittles account tweeted in response:
Our thoughts go out to the spokescandies https://t.co/ub8iPHCq5d
— SKITTLES (@Skittles) January 23, 2023
Those who refuse to learn from social media are condemned to repeat it, apparently.
What’s worse is that, in the interim, Anheuser-Busch InBev pretty much nuked the best-selling beer in America and a few billion dollars of market cap with a social media campaign featuring transgender “influencer” Dylan Mulvaney.
Say what you will about that misguided social media campaign, at least Bud Light is supposed to be enjoyed by people 21 and over. This is candy, which is aimed at children. Did these executives not think it would draw the same kind of scrutiny the Mulvaney fiasco did — if not worse? Or are they that cocooned in the ESG-centric C-suites at Mars that they saw nothing problematic with this?
Whatever the case may be, have fun with being Bud Light 2.0, Skittles executives. Say hello to the M&M’s “spokescandies” for me when you meet them at the unemployment office.
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