Skittles risks 'Bud Light' treatment after partnership with GLAAD, Pride packaging

During May and June, Skittles partnered with GLAAD and designers from the LGBTQ+ community for the fourth year in a row to redesign its packaging. Images of the packaging with the promotions of "Black Trans Lives Matter" caused a stir after they were shared on social media this week, with conservatives calling to boycott the brand. 

In a post on X, the End Wokeness account shared the pictures and wrote, "Skittles has partnered with GLAAD, a group that supports sex procedures for kids."

"'Black Trans Lives Matter' is now on their packaging too, for some reason," it added. "You know what to do..." 

During a post in May, the brand announced they had partnered with "LGBTQ+ artists to design and release five limited-edition SKITTLES packs that tell visual stories of Pride." It added that for every Pride pack sold, they would donate a $1 (going up to $100,000) for GLAAD "to back their ongoing efforts to work through media to support the LGBTQ+ community."

On the back of the packaging, Skittles said, "We're giving up our Rainbow so that LGBTQ+ artists can share theirs," as it changed their normally rainbow-colored candy white. 

The overwhelming response to the post is people calling to boycott the candy brand. Some compare it to the Beer brand Bud Light partnering with TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney and pushing to execute a massive boycott the same way. 

"@Skittles seriously what is wrong with you? Have u not been paying attention to what happened to @budlight n @Target," one user wrote. "LEAVE OUR CHILDREN ALONE! U r a candy company why r u promoting this crap? Guess we’ll add u to the list of #skittlesnomore #dontbuyskittles."

Meg Brock shared a clip from last year's campaign that featured the artist wearing a "Support Trans Kids" t-shirt. She points out that they also "look up to trans youth activists who are testifying in court." 

On its website, Skittles notes it partnered with Audible to "make LGBTQ+ stories accessible everywhere," and the Queery podcast to create a "special Pride-themed miniseries." 

In December, Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of GLAAD, claimed that "dragphobia" was spreading across the country in reaction to concerns over the preponderance of drag events geared toward kids and families.

Bud Light created controversy in April when it partnered with controversial TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney. In its 2nd quarter earnings report, Bud Light's parent company InBev showed it had lost $390 million, with a 14.1 percent loss in gross profit for the North American division.