We live in a time where ads can no longer just be ads, where every commercial has to be some left-field idea unrelated to the product that will go viral and then somehow convince people to, say, use Old Spice, or in this case, eat Skittles.
The preview for the upcoming Skittles Super Bowl ad, which is a live Broadway musical, has taken this idea to the extreme. In the preview, Michael C. Hall (of Dexter) tries to explain exactly what this performance is, settling on the phrase: "a live Skittles musical ad performed in a Broadway theatre." His therapist is confused, especially by the fact that people will actually buy tickets to a show, at the Town Hall Theatre in Times Square, taking place on time only on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb 3rd, and is actually just a Skittles ad, no matter that the proceeds are being donated to the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
At one point in the video, a scarecrow appears, who claims to be "the living manifestation of your anxieties" (a straw man), to which the therapist cracks, "which ones?" The answer: all of them! The world is in a bad way when Skittles produces a live ad which has this as its artist statement: "through song and dance, the show takes an absurdly self-reflective look at consumerism and the growing pervasiveness of brand advertising in our lives." Uh-huh.
Some tickets are still available, for $207, here.
