Boycott-Happy Conservatives Suddenly Mad at the Most Obvious Pride Brand Promotion

Conservatives have spun the outrage wheel yet again, and this time the arrow’s landed on Skittles. If you’d told me earlier that the rainbow candy, with a history of doing special celebratory pride month packaging, was the latest target of right wing ire … I wouldn’t have been surprised at all, actually.

I mean, seriously, this little boycott couldn’t be more on the nose if it tried. They’ve actually successfully identified something that really is in support of the LGBTQ+ agenda, a.k.a. our being allowed to fully participate in society without fear of violence or discrimination. The only surprising thing here is that it took them so long to get one started. Skittles has been running their annual “only one rainbow matters” Pride campaign for six years now (and partnered with GLAAD for four of them).

Did they really only just notice? That’s not very “obsessively monitoring everything for signs of secret rainbow homosexual propaganda” of them, is it? They’re falling down a bit on the job there. Even if this had just started this year, Pride was two months ago.

Skittles are the next ridiculous conservative boycott target

Of course it’s not just Skittles’ rainbow agenda that’s got them riled up this time. Of the five different limited edition packets released for Pride month this year, one also featured Black Lives Matter slogans as part of its design, and if there’s one thing conservatives can’t stand, it’s calls to end police brutality and the unprovoked, racist murder of Black people at the hands of the cops.

Created by Black, queer artist Bianca Xunise (they them), the packaging that’s so offended conservatives features punks of various ethnic backgrounds, with POC figures front and center, enjoying time at a skate park. There’s a rainbow snaking its way across the background behind them while graffiti on the skate ramp reads “Black trans lives matter” and “joy is resistance.” It’s a fun, joyous image that encapsulates everything those on the right fear, so naturally, they’re acting like it’s the end of the world.

As with many ludicrous conservative moral panics over the years, we largely have professional outrage merchant and right-wing hate-monger Chaya Raichik, also known as Libs of TikTok, to thank. Though there has been the occasional objection from lone conservatives outraged about “gay candy” over the years, it wasn’t until Raichik decided to put the company on blast for “trying to turn your kids into BLM & LGBTQ+ activists” and allegedly featuring a drag queen (its unclear which figure she’s talking about) that enough bigots actually noticed for talk of a boycott to really get off the ground.

Not merely content with condemning Skittles for supporting both queer people’s right to exist and the call for an end to brutal, racist violence by agents of the state, the conservatives riled up against Skittles have also been happily spreading potentially libelous disinformation about GLAAD—and Skittles, through their collaboration with the organization, by extension.

Obsessed with the idea that the left is somehow “transing children” and trying to push gender affirmation surgeries on pre-teens, transphobic talking heads like Oli London—a white man who previously identified as “trans-Korean” and pursued multiple plastic surgeries in service of this before reinventing himself as one of the faces of the anti-transgender movement—are falsely accusing GLAAD of pushing medical transition on children, and Skittles, by working with them, of supporting this.

GLAAD, an organization largely focused on fair and accurate portrayal of LGBTQ+ people in the media, and which also contributes to various initiatives aimed at increasing LGBTQ+ acceptance and inclusion, is in no way doing what these online transphobes are accusing them of. Still, facts and evidence have historically mattered very little to those with an ideological objection to a marginalized group’s continued existence, so it seems unlikely that the people promoting this wild misrepresentation of GLAAD (and Skittles) are going to actually listen and retract their statements without some kind of court order.

In the meantime, right-wing Twitter users are calling for Skittles to “receive the Bud Light treatment” and celebrating the end of their candy addictions, as apparently hate wins out over sugar cravings.

They might be a little disappointed in how things turn out this time, given the different consumer base involved. Unlike Budweiser, Skittles’ fan base doesn’t tend to skew to the right, and even if conservative parents try to ban their kids from eating Mars products, well … just ask anyone whose parents banned sugar growing up exactly how effective that was. Kids are going to find a way to get their favorite candy anyway. And right now, there’s a lot more support on Twitter for the brand than there is hate.

(featured image: Mars)