Uttercast: The Web Site Gave Me the Skittles

There has been plenty of back-and-forth on both sides of opinion about the new www.skittles.com. In short, they replaced the home page with redirects to live social media sites optimized for Skittles. I don’t care if they broke any unwritten social media "rules;" there are none, and the Mars company can do what it wants.

– Is it a "bold experiment?" Sure, a lower-tier brand can take the risk. You won’t see this on the main M&Ms site.

– Is it content theft? I doubt it. But rather than participating fully in these outside domains (not that they aren’t) or building their own community, they just linked out.

– Is it confusing to visitors? No, it’s absolutely bewildering. I had such a visceral reaction to the site I actually got angry. I know all these social media sites, but l can’t figure out what to do there, and can’t easily find the info I look for in a product site. How did my 11 year-old son, a big Skittles fan, react to the site? He shrugged.

Anyone want a peppermint?