For its 2019 Super Bowl campaign, Skittles skipped the Big Game and made a full Broadway musical instead. In what was arguably the brand’s most daring stunt yet, the show, starring actor Michael C. Hall, managed to both satirize advertising (including with its lead song, “Advertising Ruins Everything,”) and make multiple, shameless Skittles plugs.
Skittles stole the Super Bowl show with its irreverent Broadway musical
Ahead of the performance, a video teaser featuring Hall having second thoughts about being in a musical ad on Broadway created buzz. “Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical” then played to a packed house of 1,500 people on Super Bowl Sunday, with revenue from tickets, priced at $200, going to the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The campaign, which was put together by DDB and production company Smuggler, generated more than 2.5 billion earned impressions and led to a 5.6 percent rise in Skittles consumption.