skills/campaign-canon/references/legendary-campaigns/cards/skittles-telephone-2011.md

---
id: skittles-telephone-2011
title: "Telephone"
brand: Skittles
agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day
year: 2011
country: US
region: north_america
industry: cpg
pattern: [P11]
category: film
idea_type: execution
involvement: passive_view
channel: digital
duration: campaign
goal: [awareness, engagement]
budget: medium
emotion: [surprised, ironic_sincerity]
emotion_tier: 3
insight_domain: joy
media_epoch: tv_first
awards: [unknown]
quality_score: 6
scalability: universal
risk: edgy
confidence: medium
quality: stub_minimal
source_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmIQfMmj5cU
---

# Telephone (Skittles · 2011)

## Insight
TODO: Verify exact year. Part of the Skittles absurdist "Touch the Rainbow" era. "Telephone" as a premise suggests a communication or chain-reaction format.

## Mechanic
An absurdist spot using telephone communication as the setup — likely a game of telephone gone surreal, or a phone conversation interrupted by impossible Skittles-related transformations. The deadpan commitment to an illogical premise is the Skittles creative signature.

## Why it worked
Phone calls provide a two-party structure that absurdist comedy can exploit — the gap between what one party says and what the other hears, or the impossibility of communicating the absurd via a normal channel. Skittles used mundane communication formats to make the absurdity feel grounded.

## Steal
Use the structure of everyday communication (phone call, letter, text) as the frame for impossible events. The banality of the medium contrasts with the absurdity of the content in a way that amplifies both.

## Related
- Pattern: [[../MOC-pattern.md#p11]]
- Sibling: [[metro-trains-dumb-ways-to-die-2012.md|Dumb Ways to Die]]
- Sibling: [[old-spice-man-your-man-could-smell-like-2010.md|The Man Your Man Could Smell Like]]
- Emotion match: [[absolut-absolut-campaign-1981.md|Absolut _____]]

---

*Author: Serge Shima ([t.me/aimastersme](https://t.me/aimastersme) · [sergeshima.com](https://sergeshima.com) · [aimasters.me](https://aimasters.me)) · License: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required · Source: [smixs/creative-director-skill](https://github.com/smixs/creative-director-skill)*