Skittles

Skittles are a small round chewy candy that comes in many different colors in a bag. Skittles tag line has often been “Taste the rainbow”, to signify the colorful aspect of the candy. Skittles are fruit-flavored, and while they look much like their more chocolate relatives, M&M’s, they are in a niche of their own. Unlike the chocolate flavor you might expect from other small colorful candies, such as Reese’s Pieces, Skittles instead offers a much more chewy and flavorful experience. Skittles come at the candy market from a somewhat unique angle, looking much like its “competition”, but tasting different.

Skittles is a fruit-flavored candy that comes in a variety of flavors. With its vibrant colors, it is quite popular among children and teenagers. Initially, the candies used to come in standard red packaging. However, in recent times the packaging has seen a wide array of colors after it launched different variants of the candies. The most recently introduced colors include Tropical, Sour Skittles, and Wild Berry.

Skittles have the letter “S” written on them and come in numerous colors and flavors. For instance, yellow has a lemon flavor, green has lime, purple has grape and so on. The Wrigley Company, the current producer of the candies, even also launched the “Taste the rainbow” campaign as part of its marketing in 1994. There has been a rumor that all the candies in Skittles actually taste the same.

The rumor claims the different colors just cause the consumers to feel as if they taste different. This has been debated and it seems the company Mars Wrigley Confectionery denies the claim and asserts that Skittles have different flavors for each color. Nonetheless, this rumor does not change its status as one of the most popular candies in America. It did take many consumers by surprise though.

Skittles was commercialized for the first time in Britain, back in 1974. Its production and supply remained restricted to Britain until five years after 1974. After that, the company expanded to North America and it was in 1979 that Americans were able to “taste the rainbow”. While there is concrete information about where the candies were first produced, there is only a pinch of knowledge about who produced them for the first time. Consequently, this is nothing but stories about the pioneer of this popular 80s candy.

One of the stories says that the idea of Skittles came into the mind of a British man named Mr. Skittles while he was gazing at the rainbow and pondered upon how it might taste. Hence, the “taste the rainbow” campaign. However, nobody can really approve of that story as of now. Alternatively, others claim that although Skittles was produced by its current manufacturer, it is speculated that the first production was done by an unknown British firm.

The original flavors of Skittles were Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, Grape, And Lime. Eventually, a new version of “Original Skittles” was created with a new flavor lineup. It was similar to the first batch of flavors but replaced the green “Lime” Skittle with Green apple Instead. The packaging still says “Original” on the new version. A special edition called “Long Lost Time” was released that was based on the old original version and includes lime-flavored Skittles in the bag.

The name of the candy, Skittles, seemingly comes from a game called “skittles”. It is because the shape of the candy resembles that of an object used in the game. The game is close to bowling: one has to throw a wooden or rubber sphere at 9 pins. It used to be played in England, Scotland, Wales and various European nations. The sphere is called “skittle”. Many believe that the name came from here, but there is no firm evidence of the same.

The popular slogan “taste the rainbow” comes as the candy has various kinds of colors and smell to it. This slogan first came up in 1994, which shows it has come a long way without losing its fandom. This incredibly catchy slogan was made by an advertising agency in New York known as D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles. Along with the slogan, the agency came up with the design of Skittles as well.

As part of its marketing, the company hit social media websites in 2009 with its brand in hopes of attracting more customers. Marketing on the internet and social media has definitely been successful as the company now has its own website, along with an impressive presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In addition to social media and internet campaigns, the company attempted to target more market segments in another thoughtful way. Skittles changed its ingredients in order to make it appropriate for vegans and vegetarians. To be specific, the gelatin was transformed into a vegan variety. Now, Skittles do not have animal products of any form.

Back in 2016, Skittles launched limited-edition candies which were completely white in color. This may seem out of place considering the slogan “taste the rainbow”. However, this move by the Wrigley Company was in light of the Gay Rights Movement. To show the support of the company for same-sex marriages, and the legalization of the same, it started the production of these limited edition candies to be sold in the month of June that year. During that time, the month of June came to be known as LGBT Pride Month. The company even included an explanation on its packaging of these colorless Skittles. From then on, the company has regularly produced limited-edition Skittles in the month of June.

Skittles has been used for representing beliefs other than that of gay rights as well. Back in 2010, during the case of the shooting of a black teenager named Trayvon Martin, Skittles was used as a symbol of Martin’s innocence. The shooter, George Zimmerman claimed that he shot the boy dead in self-defense. According to Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, Martin was attempting to rob a neighboring house. However, after an investigation was conducted, it was found that the teenager did not have any equipment or weapon that was indicative of a burglary. This is where Skittles comes in: the boy had a Skittles packet in his pocket, which was said to apparently have shown the child inside him, who could not engage in such an act. Following the acquittal of Zimmerman, many protesters came out on the roads and used bags of Skittles as their flags for the protest.

Skittles has remained a popular candy over the decades since its introduction and is regularly found in candy stores’ more prominent candy sections as of 2019. In the year 2018, it was reported that Skittles was the most popular Halloween for several states. Mars Wrigley Confectionery has offered a year of free candy, including Skittles, as a sign-on bonus for becoming an intern with them. While it is hard to judge how many people applied to the internship to get their hands on candy, it is not shocking given the popularity of Skittles that many have applied for just to get the added bonus of a year’s supply of it. Skittles has been sold in more than 65 countries and has been the second most popular candy for a time in the United States.