Skittles Get Spike in Sales in Trayvon Martin Aftermath
As the wearing of hoodies takes the world by storm, both in public memorial rallys and on social networking sites like Facebook, Skittles have also become something of a symbol embraced by supporters of Trayvon Martin in the wake of his death at the hands of George Zimmerman. This embrace has caused the sale of Skittles to soar.
Skittles have been piled up into makeshift public memorials and handed out at rallies commemorating the deceased Martin, and a spike in Skittles sales is good for business, right? Not necessarily. The people at Wrigley, the Mars subsidiary that makes Skittles, are actually a bit nervous about the PR netted them in the fallout surrounding the Trayvon Martin killing, reports the New York Times. “You get trained if someone dies eating your product, but I don’t think anyone has been through training for something like this,” said Beth Gallant, a marketing professor at Lehigh University who has worked as a brand manager for Nabisco, Kraft, Pfizer and Crayola.
Wrigley has been playing it safe, only saying that it is deeply saddened by the incident that cost Trayvon Martin his life, and declining to comment further, stating, “it inappropriate to get involved or comment further as we would never wish for our actions to be perceived as an attempt of commercial gain following this tragedy.” Pretty smart move, except that many are saying that Wrigley should donate some of its earnings-surplus to appropriate charities and causes.
The extra public scrutiny on Wrigley for their already-popular candy Skittles could become quite unwelcome. “There is this moment where as a brand manager you think, ‘Oh my God, this is bigger than we are,’ ” said Heidi Hovland, a senior partner at Fleishman-Hillard in New York whose client list includes Hyatt Hotels, Barnes & Noble and several food companies. Until Wrigley decides to start donating to the various movements connected to the Trayvon Martin killing, some African Americans have been asking people to stop buying Skittles via social networking websites, “I think we are at a dangerous position where we can make Wrigley richer,” said Rashad Moore, 22, president of the chapel assistants at Morehouse College.
Speculatively, perhaps that’s exactly what Wrigley wants, at least for the time being.
