"Skittles blasted over new pro-LGBTQ packaging"

[SpicyMoth]

https://nypost.com/2023/08/13/skittles-blasted-over-pro-lgbtq-packaging-time-to-bud-light-them/

Wondered what MNer's thought about this, does it bother you, does it not etc?
Are Boycott's being overdone at this point?

Part of me does worry that public outcries like this just give activists more ammunition for saying "SEE?! We're clearly not getting through, we must do more, and harder!"

The general Pride stuff is fine imo, they've been showing support for years now.
I thought their original campaign, making Skittles all plain coloured to focus on "The rainbow that mattered" whenever that was going on was a neat idea.

But with this, it just seems different. It seems more politically and ideologically driven somehow?
Maybe because there's no direct "face" of it? Maybe it's because it's the new Pride Flag?
Maybe because of the actual text on the packaging? Maybe all of it, I'm honestly not sure.

I'm definitely not "outraged" by it. But I'm not necessarily comfortable with it either.

I feel a bit like this.

I don't really boycott everything, but certainly if companies project an image I find problematic, or annoying, it affects to some extent what I buy.

I'm increasingly annoyed by all forms of corporate virtue signalling. I don't want companies to tell me what I am supposed to think, or to be political. And a lot of the time it feels like that, as if a candy package, or washing soap, suddenly started putting stickers on their products like "We support the LibDems" or "Tories Forever". I don't care about who they support on political or social issues, I don't care about their, typically, completely un-nuanced take on things, I don't think they have any moral authority, I resent the implication that I should support these things too.

And it's even with regard to causes I feel supportive of. I really am increasingly fatigued that what candy I eat, or when I go to a sports event, I am supposed to play lip service to some political cause. It kind of like a scenario where you have Bible verses on every product, ever commercial includes a prayer, every event is supporting some church group or another and involves a mini-sermon before the match gets started.

Doesnt greatly interest me as I'm not a skittles fan myself. That sort of advertising might put me off buying them for children. Businesses should stick to running a business.

If you want to promote removing healthy breasts, though, you can be quite sure I wont be buying your coffee.

I'm LGB and don't agree. I won't now touch anything with Pride on it and flinch at the sight of the flags being rammed down my throat everywhere I go, because it's in fact about trans supremacism and homophobia. I'm excluded from Pride because I'm actually homosexual and will not validate a male person's gender identity with my body. For that, the gentlest of names likely to be hurled at me is 'sexual racist' (head of Stonewall), with the rest including threats of corrective rape and murder.

I think it's a bit odd to feel that I should be ok with this as opposed to horrified and scared by it.

All of this.

It just makes me want to appropriate a quote the IDPOL activists and tell corporations to ‘Stay in Your Lane’, even when it’s a cause I believe in.

It’s just rainbow washing - a temporary shiny deflection from the terrible things that big corps do.

If these companies actually paid their fair share of taxes then they wouldn’t need to ‘support’ charities - governments could direct funds where it was needed, according to
the democratic decisions of the citizens*
(eg I get really annoyed when Help for Heroes are out fundraising because injured former service people should be properly funded by the sodding governments that sent them to war zones, not by pensioners putting change in a rattled bucket)

*obvs I realise that governments can’t actually be trusted to do this but we can’t rely on benevolent billionaires to
make altruistic decisions - for every Jo Rowling there are probably 10 J Pritzkers

let sweets be sweets!

I don't boycott as such, but if I see rainbow adorned packaging I immediately give it a swerve. Like others I can't stand corporate virtue signalling and wouldn't want to expose young children to it. Mars need to stick to selling sweeties, not endorsing women hating organisations.

Celebrating diversity by greying out dull boring straights.

What sort of message is that really? So if you are straight, the only way to be not dull, not grey is to take on a made up TQ+ identity.

Which misses the point surely?

@NicCageisnotNickCave Thank you for those links, especially the second one...

I don't do boycotts as such, but I don't buy from companies that support the erasure of women. I hold grudges 😁

Lush, for example, can fuck off. And the Body Shop.

I believe originally the plain coloured skittles campaign was more about making their packaging look boring during Pride, because "the rainbow that truly mattered" was the Pride one.

Honestly as a concept I liked it, it came across as genuine & meaningful rather than just virtue signalling because plain packaging doesn't help sales, it hinders!

But this new 2.0 version of it?
Now including not just the rainbow, but the progressive one.
Specifically making the focus of it the 'T' rather than 'LGB' or 'LGBT' as a whole.

Like others above have said, I don't think it's the "supporting of Pride" that's an issue- but that it actually doesn't seem to be supporting Pride very much at all.

Something else that occurs to me - companies like this have thousands of employees. I imagine that they have many different views on politics, social issues, religion, etc.

Whenever companies make some kind of statement that may be controversial or whatever, it's potentially uncomfortable for the people that work there. I have one friend who ended up leaving a job because of the increasing pressure of participating in Pride type stuff, which weren't really in line with his religious beliefs.

I wouldn't want to say companies can't have principles they work by, clearly they can, and that's not a bad thing. But when they do this more performative stuff, it always makes me wonder how their workers, who probably need the job, feel about those causes, and if they feel they need to abandon their own moral autonomy to get paid.

I believe originally the plain coloured skittles campaign was more about making their packaging look boring during Pride, because "the rainbow that truly mattered" was the Pride one.

One supermarket labelled them, "Skittles White Pride"!

If companies want to support stuff, can they do something original?

When are we going to see Barclays Bank supporting the reintroduction of the death penalty?

Can we have an ice cream company insisting that all of Jerusalem belongs to Israel?

There's a tendency for annual events/traditions to get larger as people/organisations/companies do whatever they did last year plus something else to outdo themselves/others. And more people/organisations/companies join in because they saw the activity the previous year. A sort of celebration inflation.

I noticed this pre pandemic with remembrance Day (though lockdowns may have calmed that down). It always struck me that the fewer people who could actually remember the wars and those lost in them, the more it took on more cultural phenomenon/ritual. Instead of ordinary (though courageous) people who had all been through hardships remembering real people, it's kind of becoming something else. It made me think about how legends of hereos/saints etc are created. I'm not saying that we ought to forget either, just it seemed to get bigger and bigger.

Or a more light-hearted note, you can see it with Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Graduations/Leavers Dos or Proms from nursery and primary as well as secondary and university.

People have their own traditions, and then through Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram see what other people do, and add them to their repertoire. Add in the content creation economy and schools trying to come up with seasonal projects, business doing seasonal stuff to promote themselves etc.

It's not surprising that Pride is subject to the same inflation, though it is a bit irritating/worrying given it all feels like advertising for the gender industry.

You know, its on their content creation calendars as a topic to do posts around, so they create marketing related to it

See also all the international awareness days you'd never heard of until a bunch of influencers/social media marketing teams have to churn out content every day.

I don't think they really stop and think whether the thing aligns with their company values/customer values whether it is necessary or relevant or whether their piggybacking off the day actually helps the cause or what.

I don't like the progress flag anywhere, and I think the phrase " be generous with your love" is a bit inappropriate for a children's product. I wont actively boycott because of the packaging, but I'd be less inclined to buy, if it has a progress flag on it.