If you were expecting Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler to break out in a jam session with Skittles-colored disco lights beaming into a highly packed Super Bowl party room, you may be disappointed.
Just days before the 2016 Super Bowl, the rainbow-colored candy released their 30-second Skittles 2016 Super Bowl commercial titled “The Portrait” and it definitely managed to surprise us. In their sophomore Super Bowl ad, Skittles went in an entirely new direction with an ad the blends music, art and our favorite sugary-sweet junk food. But did it work?
Watch the Skittles ad and judge for yourself:
One thing we can learn from this Super Bowl commercial: If you want to impress Steven Tyler with a custom self-portrait, make sure that portrait can sing at least as well as Steve himself.
The Skittles commercial starts with Steven Tyler walking down a dark hallway decorated with armor and gold records. As he approaches the end of the corridor, his official Skittles portrait is unveiled, as the opening to “Dream On” starts in the background.
…And Tyler finds it “E to the Z twittle-D-eesgusting!”
But then we find out the portrait can sing!
Tyler challenges the portrait to a sing off, until it shatters on the floor and all we see is the mouth belting out a final note. The ad ends a demamd from Skittles to “Rock the Rainbow” and “Taste the Rainbow.”
Since they couldn’t think of anything other than a Skittles Portrait that sings…
The Skittles Super Bowl 50 commercial is in line with the company’s “Taste the Rainbow” campaign. Look out for it during the second quarter of CBS’s broadcast of the Big Game.
Matt Montei, Director of Confections and Seasonal Business at Wrigley, gave an insight into the making of the ad and stated that it originated from the “realization that people don’t just eat Skittles, they also use the bright candies for art projects that they share on social platforms.” Skittles wanted an ad that would sing to their consumers’ interests. Hence the portrait.
What else is Skittles up to before the Big Game?
The company is running a Super Bowl promotion urging fans to “Root for the Rainbow” with the hashtags #SkittlesRainbow and #Contest. They’ve got all of us hoping for partly cloudy skies on Game Day. Even Panthers and Broncos star players, Luke Keuchly and Demarcus Ware, are getting into the Skittles amazing giveaway. Skittles is giving out free bags of Skittles to 100,000 lucky (and Twitter-happy) fans if a “rainbow appears in the Bay Area on game day.”
