Tasting the Rainbow. Deciphering the Rainbow.

Sometimes, I really do think that I have a goldfish of a memory capacity. They say that a typical goldfish’s memory span lasts a total of 7 seconds (two times faster than I can eat a bag a Skittles)…yeap, that perfectly describes my memory at times right there. But even with my level of memory capabilities (or, rather, disabilities), this is not a logical reason for my inability to recall even just one of Skittles’ past advertisements. However, that statement no longer holds a shred of validity with the launch of their new campaign this past Wednesday. Below is the one out of Skittles’ five new videos that have generated the most views since Wednesday’s launch:

Referring back Elmo Lewis’ brainchild–the AIDA model–it is evident that the purpose behind the videos’ creation is one of capturing the ever decreasing attention span of the technologically savvy consumers. The ads are simplistic in that the avoidance of information overload has been succeeded, and the originality behind the videos easily cuts through the blaring noise surrounding the average consumer each day. What I most admire, however, is Skittles’ tactic in taking advantage of this current social media trend to reach out to their Teenage to Generation Y target market. The videos’ interaction with the audience through the touch of a finger is dependent upon the consumers’ computer usage–the campaign would not have worked had the advertisements been broadcasted during commercial breaks (who would want to coat their 900 in. TV screens with finger oil??). I can’t say I understand what cats, car thefts, video gun games, hitchhiking, or ugly girls have to do with Skittles, but the most important aspect was that Skittles has managed to grab the attention of their audience with these unique videos, and I have no doubt that they will be a mainstay in my (and the majority of others’) memory for a long while, goldfish memory or not.