(Update: Agency.com may have copped this technique from a stunt by Modernista.)

What’s the point of this?  And why is it working?   (#skittles is presently the number one keyword on Search.Twitter.Com)

1. people want to be seen, and know they will be seen if they use the world "skittles"
2. people are going to post links to skittles.com to explain what’s going on AND improve their chances of being seen  
3. endless opportunities for horrible puns on Skittles’ "taste the rainbow" tagline
4. no matter what is said about Skittles, it’s going to get tons of people talking, and tons of people to view skittles.com.

Needless to say, other companies will no doubt follow the rainbow of using Twitter trending for short, hugely effective bursts of publicity.  Free ad impressions (or nearly-free, you still have to pay for bandwidth) are irresistible candy.

Reactions from Twitter:

  laughingsquid: along with making Twitter search the default for their website,Skittles is also using YouTube, Flickr & Facebook http://bit.ly/qGUao (expand)

  SEOinSeattle: Everyone will be talking about Skittles. They know they’ll take heat and crap, but if any publicity is good they just hit a home run.

  robofillet: Even if this Skittle stunt only lasts a day before they’re spammed to bits, they’ve done a great job social marketing. Skittles is trending.

  averagebetty: Tweet the rainbow of carnuba wax… bad for your teeth… brilliant marketing. #skittles

  emilychang: watching the tweets about skittles coming in and LMAO. the backlash has already begun. geek irony rules.

  bethlexicon: @hensel says the Skittles idea is good, but the spammers are bad. Seems like you can’t have one without the other, though. #skittles

  korch: finally twitter has a practical use, making this appear on skittles.com! squee!

As an aside, seems like the MARS company is trying to appeal to intarweb hipsterz…

meta-irony of the day: they’ve also gotten me to link to Skittles.com.  sigh!