Skittles Colorizes Old Images of LGBTQ History for Pride

The lives of LGBTQ+ people have often been overlooked in history. Skittles is trying to remedy this by diving into the archives and shining a spotlight on historic LGBTQ+ moments. The “Recolor the Rainbow” campaign, created by Adam & Eve/DDB and DDB Chicago, coincides with Pride month in June and is a partnership between Skittles, Gay Times Group, the charity Queer Britain and LGBTQ+ helpline Switchboard. The ads recolor a selection of black-and white-photos of LGBTQ+ milestones from the past, thus metaphorically lending the Skittles rainbow to bring greater visibility to the community’s history. The featured images are from a 1971 Gay Liberation Front protest in London's Trafalgar Square; a Lesbian Strength March in 1985, including activist Femi Otitoju; and Pride events in 1970s New York. Working with colorization specialists at Dynamichrome, Skittles restored the images to full color for the first time. The Mars brand is also collaborating with Queer Britain, a charity working to establish the U.K.’s first national LGBTQ+ museum, to support and build their archive. The group is calling on LGBTQ+ people in the U.K. to submit their own historical black-and-white photographs from Prides of the past, a number of which will be recolored and added to the Queer Britain collection. With Gay Times, Skittles has created a dedicated campaign hub including an intergenerational video series featuring people from the images, such as Otitoju, speaking with younger LGBTQ+ people. The site will publish the stories behind the photos, a zine and a sticker sheet about Switchboard’s history. This is the sixth year that Skittles has celebrated Pride after declaring in a 2016 open letter that it would “Give the rainbow” to the LGBTQ+ community. Since then, the brand has given up its own rainbow colors in some way to let the symbol of Pride take center stage. In 2017 and continuing this year, it released a white edition of its multi-colored candy. Skittles has invested more than half a million pounds into this year’s initiative. “Every Pride, Skittles takes the rainbow off their packs so Pride can take center stage," said Richard Brim, CCO of Adam & Eve/DDB, in a statement. "This year, we’ve taken this a step further by using our rainbow to restore iconic black-and-white photographs from Pride’s history to their full color and vibrancy. Because what better way to celebrate Pride than to tell the stories of the movement’s first marches to a new generation of Pride-goers?” Snapchat Teams Up With Pride Basics on Real-Life Custom Pride Flags Credits Client: Mars Brand: Skittles Business Unit Director: Kerry Cavanaugh Portfolio Director: Victoria Gell Senior Brand Manager: Joanna Freeborough Brand Manager: Sophie Bryson Chief Creative Officer: Richard Brim Creative Directors: Ben Stilitz & Colin Booth (Adam & Eve/DDB) Creatives: Clarissa Dale & John Trainor-Tobin (Adam & Eve/DDB) Executive Creative Director: Colin Selikow (DDB Chicago) Creatives: Nick Howard & Nick Stone (DDB Chicago) Social Director: Rebecca Wilson Agency Producer: Amy Simmons Planner: David Mortimer Joint CEO: Tammy Einav & Mat Goff Group Managing Director: Fiona McArthur Managing Partner: Charlotte Cook Account Manager: Janki Shah Account Executive: Becky Kilner Project Manager: Linda-Aileen Macfarlane Legal: Candice Mcleod, Tom Campbell, Freya Vale Design: King Henry Head of Design: Alex Fairman Designer: Martin Murphy Artwork Manager: Dave Callow Design Director: Rob Wallis Retoucher: Jon Webb Retouching Studio Manager: Dan Sandalls Media Agency: Mediacom Media Planners: Richard Mashiter, Paige Eaton Colorizer: Dynamichrome Visual Historian: Jordan J. Lloyd Assistant: Joshua Barrett Strategic Partner: Gay Times Group Executive Creative Director: Josh Fletcher Art Director: Jack Rowe Creative: Umar Sarwar Producer: Sophie Christophersen Client Service Director: Georgie Frampton Senior Client Service Manager: Georgie Nunan CEO: Tag Warner Lead Business Manager: Tiff Grumble Group Comms and Marketing Manager: Jared Fleming Editorial Director: Lewis Corner Skittles Goes Colorless For LGBTQ+ Pride Partnership

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Skittles Uses Its Rainbow to Colorize Images of LGBTQ+ History for the First Time

Campaign features previously black-and-white images of iconic moments in full color to shine light on community's milestones

Brittaney Kiefer

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Brittaney Kiefer