The Seven Best Darkest Skittles Ads.
Skittles has put out some of the best dark humor ads of this century. These are my favorites. All by TBWA\Chiat\Day.
It’s Friday, raise a glass/bottle/blunt/bowl/bong to Ad Creativity, dying not-that-slowly right before our eyes. Young creatives, here’s your lesson of the week: Dark Humor, when done right, is the best ad humor and one of the best ways to sell a brand. Seven spots, in no particular order, except the last one. None from the last ten years, of course.
1. “Chocolate The Rainbow”
Maybe my favorite, depends on the day and who asks. Seriously-injured Chocolate Man-Piñata does not have “little chocolatey candies” inside of him. “I have to buy my Skittles downstairs—LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!” 2008.
2. “Clench The Rainbow”
Just two guys literally stuck in death grips, The looks on their faces—they know they’re finished. At least they have Skittles. 2011.
3. “Sour The Rainbow”
Man, not at all upset about being milked for…milk, eating sour Skittles. Other man, the cow-man’s farmer, upset about the resultant sour milk. There is no happy conclusion. 2007.
4. “Sweat The Rainbow”
CORRECTION: This spot was created by DDB Chicago.
Let’s go darker. Man (who resembles Abe Lincoln) sweats Skittles. Worker asshole keeps pushing him to run faster on treadmill until he falls off, slams his head against the wall, and looks like he suffers a concussion while rainbow blood spurts out of his head. 2012.
5. “Peck The Rainbow”
Not as dark as the others, but still pretty dark. The trenchcoated man-pigeons are fucking creepy. 2011.
6. “Warp The Rainbow”
Reverse Benjamin Button-inspired. Young black man refuses to stop eating Skittles from aging white man’s literal hourglass. Near-death man nods off, and maybe dies… 2009.
7. “Touch The Rainbow”
Lastly, it’s the ad that started the dark ball rolling, the darkest of the campaign. Everything “Tim” touches turns to Skittles. “Joel” thinks “that’s awesome”. Tim counters: “Is is awesome when you can’t hold your newborn baby boy in your arms?” That morning, Tim killed a man on the bus by shaking his hand. “I guess that’s pretty awesome”. Dark, DARK funny shit. 2007.
POST-NOTE:
8. “Tame The Rainbow”
This Russian Skittles spot, seemingly also from 2007, is very bleak. A man in a bear suit “terrorizes” villagers. But the villagers have pitchforks. Elderly lady stabs man-bear in stomach, he keels over and dies, bleeding Skittles.
There is a second version of this spot (here) with a realistic looking bear who isn’t gored but simply rolls over on his stomach offering up wild berry skittles attached to his fur. This was probably the released one. Agency unknown.
These are classics and benchmarks for memorable dark-comedy campaigns.
You also made me think about all the bullshit about ChatGPT replacing creative professionals.
After trying to be vague with “brief-level" language. I literally fed it the creative idea:
"Write a 30-second script for a Skittles commercial in the style of dark-comedy about a piñata man confronting his co-worker about hitting him with a bat expecting candies to come out.”
And this is the crap it put out:
"It's just another day at the Skittles factory. But little did Piñata Man know, his co-worker had other plans. As he sat at his desk, his colleague snuck up behind him and whacked him with a bat. Piñata Man tumbled to the ground, expecting a shower of Skittles to rain down on him. But as he looked up, all he saw was his co-worker standing over him, disappointed. 'Come on man, where's the Skittles?' Piñata Man sighed and shook his head. 'I'm a person, not a piñata.' So remember, Skittles may be a tasty treat, but please don't hit your coworkers expecting them to dispense candy.”
Dark? Yes. Funny? Hell no. Replacement? Unsure. Ask again later.
Though, judging by a lot of what’s out there now, some probably could be.