Around the Net

Skittles Candy And Trayvon Martin's Death

Rashaun Collins, who owns the Discreetly Greek T-shirt company in Minnesota, slips a pack of Skittles into every order he ships.

At Spelman College, the historically black women’s liberal arts school in Atlanta, the student government is buying Skittles in bulk and reselling them for 50 cents a bag to raise money for the family of Trayvon Martin who was carrying the candy when he was shot. But in the offices of the company that makes Skittles, Wrigley, and its parent company, Mars, Skittles’ new level of fame has quickly become a kind of marketing crisis that is threatening to hurt the company even as sales improve.

“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.

advertisement

advertisement

Read the whole story at New York Times »

Next story loading loading..