Featured image for Skittles Gives Up Their Rainbow For Pride Month

Skittles Gives Up Their Rainbow For Pride Month

by Rudy Sanchez on 05/26/2020 | 2 Minute Read

Regardless of the motivation, during Pride month, rainbow-themed packaging blooms just like spring flowers. Modeled after the widely recognized Pride Rainbow flag, brands want to signal their support of the LGBT+ community have a pretty easy template to follow, that is, unless you’re candy brand Skittles.

Skittles are bright, chewy, and fruit-flavored candy buttons, and every bag is a spectrum of colors. The Mars-owned candy brand already has its identity strongly tied to rainbows, necessitating the need for a different approach for its Pride campaign, which includes a $1 a package donation to GLAAD, up to $100,000. The new packaging is mostly white, save for a single red skittle, and the catchphrase is replaced with “Only one rainbow matters during Pride.”

Editorial photograph

The colorless packaging had its debut last year in Canada, UK, and Germany, but is now available for the first time in the US this year. The packaging will replace the bags for the original variety, which includes orange, apple, grape, lemon, orange, and strawberry. If you're the kind of freak who prefers to sort your Skittle by color before eating them, good luck-all the candies are gray.

"This Pride month, Skittles is removing its rainbow, but replacing it with much-needed conversations about the LGBTQ+ community and a visible stand of solidarity," said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a press release. "The funding that GLAAD receives from the Skittles Pride Packs will support our news and campaigns program, which tells culture-changing stories of LGBTQ+ people and issues across the media year-round. This year when many LGBTQ+ people will be unable to gather at large Pride events, it's so important that brands, notables, and other allies find authentic and creative ways to show that they stand with our community."