After uploading their newest commercial, "Liar Liar", to their official YouTube channel, Skittles is receiving a bit of backlash from Adweek, a popular American advertising publication.
In the commercial, a boy is being "teased" by two friends and his mother.
"Hey Verge, do you still like my sister?" one of the friends asks. The boy replies, "no," and Skittles shoot out of his ears. The other friend then asks if that happens every time he lies, and the candy shoots out of his ears once more.
After one more prod, the video ends with the tagline "Tease the Rainbow. Taste the Rainbow."
Aside from the idea of eating earwax-covered Skittles being generally gross, Adweek's media, advertising, and popular culture blog "Adfreak," writes that the commercials shows Skittles isn't "really into the whole anti-bullying thing."
"Skittles' new 'Liar Liar' ad is just as weird as the brand's previous efforts, but also a little meaner. The poor kid's friends and mom are exploiting what looks like a physically and mentally unpleasant symptom of dishonesty for their own gain, while previous ads were more benign in their absurdism."
This commercial comes amid recent movements to fight bullying in schools and on the web. Last November, filmmaking team Everyone launched a powerful anti-bullying campaign video titled "losers," highlighting how hurtful a single word can be.
The same mont,h 150 students in Alberta, Canada participated in a dancing flashmob to Glee song "Loser Like Me" to express solidarity with students who are picked on.
What do you think? Is the Skittles video insensitive to the bullying issue, or just harmlessly strange? Vote below and tell us in the comments.
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