Admiration and disgust flooded, unfiltered, across the homepage of the brightly coloured candy coated bits of sugar. It’s not even 9 am on the first day for Skittles’ new website and the backlash has begun. It’s on display for all to see at Skittles.com.
Counterintuitive? Yes. Welcome? Not one bit.
Skittles, an otherwise unremarkable candy, had made a remarkable move. Handing over their website to social media sites. Instead of a front page, a Twitter.com search page appears with all current 140 character messages (“tweets”) that mention “skittles” – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Digging deeper into their “website” (now, just a brashly designed overlay panel) reveals that each choice leads the consumer to a new “social media site.” Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and product links go to Wikipedia. This isn’t a wholly original idea: Brazil PR, located in the UK has a similar site, using their Wikipedia entry as their homepage. Modernista.com also has a very similar concept.
A lot people on Twitter reacted with congratulations and admiration of the social media move made by Mars Incorporated (Skittles’ parent company). The more I though about who and why they were marketing this way, the more frustrated I became.
To brush off the campaign as a “social media stunt” or targeting “twitter users” is to underestimate intelligence and research sitting behind this campaign. First, it’s key to understand Skittles is creating this site for kids. (Why else do you think Skittles is packaged in a rainbow, nearly always features a contest or tie-in, and is placed at eye-level in virtually every retail scenario?)
This is exactly why I’m unimpressed with the campaign. Skittles marketers have understood and taken advantage of a few key facts about young people and the internet:
- Youth are rightly, highly suspect of corporate websites
- Youth are well-ahead of the curve with social media sites
- Youth use multiple sources to confirm facts; Skittles provides the sources
I think this is the modern day equivalent of high pressure sales tactics: “Here sir, use MY phone to call the other guys, ask them if they will give you a better deal. No really, go ahead take the phone. That’s how confident we are in our prices.”
This tactic is insidious in that it co-opts the trust built (not earned) by social media sites like Facebook and Wikipedia. Skittles hasn’t publicly committed to not “astroturfing”, so we have no way of knowing they aren’t. So they “transparently” hand over their entire corporate brand/website known “arena’s of trust” for youth, without disclosing how they plan to interact with the medium.
As progressive thinker and emerging media teacher Wayne MacPhail said earlier today: “Honestly, I hope some adbusters kids talk trash about the product and culturejam the shit out of it. Yes, that is a call to action, students.”
I agree Wayne. I was happy to participate and posted to Wayne in reply:
“They are way ahead of you. #skittles skittles skittles skittles skittles skittles skittles capitalist douche skittles” And yes, it duly popped up beside all the other messages at Skittles.com. Jam away.
UPDATE: Here is another very thought-provoking post on the “social media value” of this campaign for Skittles and Mars Incorporated. The best point: @skittles on Twitter.com; not owned/operated by Skittles (yet).
UPDATE 2: Devin Johnson found another point of concern from the comments below:
“Here’s something I find problematic: all of the important legal information is hidden in a JavaScript widget under the label “Other Gobbledygook.” If you don’t have JavaScript enabled, you can’t access:
* the copyright notice
* the privacy policy
* the nutritional and allergy information
* the disclaimer that states “Children should get a parent’s permission before visiting any website or giving personal information. You must be 18 or older to shop online.”"
What do you think about the site? Let me know in the comments.
Photo credits.
