Just a Quick Query...

I am going to Australia in a week and I would love to try some of the local candies there. I know I have some well-travelled readers out there, so do you have any suggestions for candies that are only available in Oz? 

The Rainbow - Let's Talk

Ah Skittles! Those brightly colored, fruit flavored little gems that fill your mouth with their sugary goodness! They have been a favorite of mine since childhood. But there is another side to Skittles, a darker side. Yes, while not made of nougat themselves, they are a part of The Nougat Empire. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Mars products, they're delicious across the board. The Milky Way... wait, in England it's a Mars Bar... but it's different there, and there's a Mars Bar in the US... but now the Mars Bar is called Snickers Almond... but there's still a Mars Bar... and a Snickers... see what I mean? A Dark Side. While they make delicious sweets, they have a history of confusing their customers. And now the Nougat Empire seems to be morphing into a Nougat Dictatorship by commandeering the Internet and its users, making the unsuspecting members of the Social Media Commune their accomplices in their online media takeover. 

Overall, the Commune has been supportive. Skittles has been lauded for embracing Social Media and using it in a bold new way that other corporations would never dare to. Well, I guess if the members of the Commune don't mind the surprise takeover, who am I to complain? So now that I have spent three paragraphs railing on about the sneak attack, I will move on to the more positive aspects of this New World Nougat Order.

First, I go to the Skittles Homepage. I am a little confused to find myself at the Skittles Wikipedia entry, but that's OK. Because the truth is, it's pretty interesting. I'm learning about the history of Skittles. I'm learning about the different flavors. I discover that there are mint flavored Skittles - OK, that doesn't sound very yummy. All in all, it's interesting, albeit a little bland. And the designer in me would really like to see some stronger branding... but wait, I'm supposed to be talking about the good stuff now.

So I go to the distracting, I mean fruit-colored, widget and click on Chatter. Now I am directed to Twitter with a Skittles search. There's some good stuff here. People are talking about the campaign. Is it genius or idiotic? There's a lot of debate and links to blogs. It's fascinating, but I don't see a lot discussion from their teenage target market. Also, the Twitter log is sprinkled with references that are inappropriate to print here, and random people tweeting things like "skittles, skittles, skittles" just so they can get on the Skittles chatter page for 20 seconds or so. It's a little frustrating to sift through all the trash, but it's only fair that I admit my guilt - I went to my twitter page and wrote "reading about Skittles" and then quickly went to the Skittles chatter page to see if my post was there. It was. I felt the brief thrill of worldwide fame. Anyway...

Clicked on Media, then Pics. Guess where I went - that's right - Flickr! What did I learn there? A lot of people name their pets Skittles, and then post pictures of their adorable antics. I suspect that in 

the next few days, we will see more and more random pictures with Skittles in them, as folks tire of the fleeting fame of Twitter and make that extra effort for extended fame on Flickr. But wait! What's this? Holy cow, someone has posted a recipe and pictures for SKITTLES VODKA!!! I feel that I owe it to my readers (both of you) to try this out. What kind of CandyGirl would I be if I didn't? I promise to let you know of my results in a future post. 

So you get the idea - I click on Friends, I go to Facebook. I click on Movies, I go to YouTube. Basically the entire website is just links to outside sites with User Generated Content. I don't know what I think about all this. On the surface, I don't like it. The Social Media Commune is all about conversations between willing participants, where everyone has ownership. It just feels like they're trying to take over the happy commune. On the other hand, it really simplified my research process for this blog post, and anything that simplifies my research is a welcome addition to my commune. Whatever your feelings are about the new campaign, one thing is for sure - that is one delicious rainbow!

And since it's now so easy for me to find Skittles stuff, let's close with a video!

I'd also like to give a special shout out to my new friend Chris, who's taken some awesome pictures of the Skittles vodka. Visit his Flickr page and show him some love!