Skittles Tweet

2016

Date: 19 September 2016 · Place: Twitter; Wrigley Company, Chicago · Figures: Donald Trump Jr, campaign surrogate · David Kittos, photographer of the stock image · Mars Wrigley Confectionery, brand · Lawrence Doll, original speech metaphor · Tags: Politics, Brand, Election 01. Bowl of Skittles On 19 September 2016 Donald Trump Jr posts a graphic to Twitter: a white bowl of Skittles with the caption If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem. The metaphor is older; a version appears in a 1938 children's book and again in a 2014 Joe Walsh tweet. Donald Trump Jr's deployment ties it to the closing weeks of the campaign. Wrigley issues a one-line statement within hours: Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. 02. Brand Counter-Statement David Kittos, the British-Cypriot refugee who took the stock photo, surfaces within 48 hours and asks for it to be taken down. His own family fled Cyprus in 1974. The Trump campaign does not respond. The exchange establishes the brand counter-statement as a category. By 2017 every retail brand has a playbook for a one-sentence repudiation of a politician using their product as metaphor. Wrigley's line is the template. Sources • Donald Trump Jr, original tweet, 19 September 2016 (archived) • Mars Wrigley Confectionery, official statement, 19 September 2016 • Guardian, 'I had no idea: Skittles photographer is shocked by Trump Jr tweet', 20 September 2016