A Witch Cooks an Annoying Teen in a Pot in Skittles' Halloween Ad

In Skittles’ first traditional Halloween commercial in five years (not counting the short film Floor 9.5 from 2017), a woebegone witch attempts to cook an incredibly annoying teen in a big pot while a crow hops around her dingy kitchen. 

Dude seems unfazed, though, and keeps demanding more Skittles. When she explains she’s fresh out and can’t get any more, he asks, “Why not? Aren’t you magic?” She implores him to leave, but he refuses. “You told me when I came here that I could have all the Skittles I wanted,” he says. 

Then things get weird, or meta, or something, when he whips out a smartphone and shows her a different Skittles commercial about a witch cooking a kid. 

Um, dude, you’re naked in that pot, so where were you keeping the phone?

Matty Cardarople from Stranger Things and past Skittles ads portrays the malcontent main course. At 36, he’s clearly playing waaay down, but that just stokes the amusing absurdity of the situation.

“Skittles ideas are always rooted in subverting something familiar and turning it into something delightfully unexpected,” says Nathaniel Lawlor, creative director at DDB Chicago, which crated the spot with production house Smuggler. “In typical Skittles fashion, we took an iconic Halloween story—a witch using candy to lure teens—and flipped it on its head, ultimately turning the evil villain into the hapless victim.” 

The ad-within-an-ad isn’t an actual old Skittles spot, but new content made specifically for this commercial. So, it’s faux-meta! Oh, and an old soap opera plays on the witch’s TV set for no apparent reason, one more random detail in Skittles’ always off-kilter advertising universe.

By the time we reach the tagline, “Annoy the rainbow. Taste the rainbow,” the witch seems thoroughly hexed—er, vexed, and rightly so. Still, she should count her dark blessings. At least she didn’t suffer like the “witchy” woman from the Purelygreat commercial. 

CREDITS

Client – Mars Wrigley Confectionery US, LLC.
Brand – Skittles

Client – Mars Wrigley Confectionery US, LLC.
Debbie Litow – USA Fruity Confections CBU, Vice President
Rebecca Duke – Senior Brand Manager, Skittles
Danielle Feinstein – Senior Associate Brand Manager, Skittles
Angelina Franco – Manger, Communications & Corporate Affairs

Creative Agency – DDB Chicago
Ari Weiss – Chief Creative Officer, Global
John Maxham – Chief Creative Officer, Chicago
Colin Selikow – Executive Creative Director
Nathaniel Lawlor – Creative Director
Ruth Bellotti – Creative Director
Diane Jackson – Chief Production Officer, Chicago
Matt Blitz – SVP, Executive Producer
Jillian English – Production Manager
Tiffany Cole – Talent Manager
Josh Drueck – Group Strategy Director
Jonathan Palmer – Senior Strategist
Richard Guest – EVP, Global Business Director
Josh Lenze – Global Brand Lead
Kyle Piazza – Global Account Supervisor
Jane Steinhoff – Global Account Executive
Rahel Rasu – Head of Global Communications
Christie Griesmaier – Associate Director of Agency Communications

PR Agency – ICF Next

Media Agency – Mediacom

Production Company – Smuggler
Bjorn Ruhmann – Director
Patrick Milling-Smith – Executive Producer
Brian Carmody – Executive Producer

Editorial – Hutch Co Technologies
Jim Hutchins – Editor

Telecine – The Mill
Nick Metcalf – Colorist

Audio/Sound Design – Heard City
Phil Loeb – Engineer