The Time that Skittles Made a Musical as a Super Bowl Ad
From Candy to Broadway
Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical
On February 3rd, aka “Super Bowl Sunday” Skittles decided to premier the first and only showing of an advertisement that I don’t believe anyone expected from them. In and unexpected move by the candy brand, Skittles went and made a commercial out of a Broadway Show.
The show was 30 minutes long and had no official intermission. It also was not televised at all as the show was not meant to be a typical Broadway Show and was a once in a time opportunity for the people who attended.
What was this performance?
The advertisement/performance commented about how much money companies are willing to shell out for a 30 second advertisement for Super Bowl Sunday. Skittles made fun of this and in turn themselves by putting on an entire Broadway performance for a Super Bowl ad.
The production itself made fun of advertising in a very meta way with the show selling shirts outside for a much lower price than the shirts inside the Theatre.
The show also allowed audience members to explore the set and stage before the performance started with guests who went on the stage able to get free packs of skittles.
The Results of the musical
The show proved to be a massive success with around 1500 people buying tickets and attending the performance. Tickets were sold for prices ranging between $30 and $205, with shirts and skittles also being sold outside the theatre and inside the entrance. All of the proceeds were donated to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The musical was seen to possibly be able to revive the tradition of industrial musicals as a way of advertising and it inspired H&M to replace the 2019 fashion week into a immersive theatre event.
The unusual advertisement method was considered to be one of the best Super Bowl ads of 2019.
Conclusion
All in all, this is definitely one of the most thought out and produced Super Bowl Sunday ads that has been in recent memory. The musical thrives with its meta humour and self-deprecating jokes about advertising. I personally would like to see more of this type of advertisements instead of companies shelling out $30 million for 30 seconds of fame on the Super Bowl screen. The Skittles advertisement team came up with a really unique way to differentiate themselves for Super Bowl Sunday and it clearly shows. If companies really do want to keep spending loads on Super Bowl ads, they should strive to mimic this type of unique exposure.