Deliver The Rainbow ft. Elijah Wood

 On February 8th, 2026, Skittles and partner company Go Puff dropped an advertisement for their super bowl ad campaign called "Deliver the Rainbow". The ad features Elijah Wood, who you might know from Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and more recently series like Yellowjackets, and I Love La. To summarize, the ad depicts a highschooler blowing a magical horn and summoning a three-legged mythical creature that brings her skittles. He then prompts you to order some skittles with Go Puff, a speedy delivery service. Apparently, one lucky household will have Elijah Wood's show up your front door and deliver you the skittles, camera crew included, to film their LIVE super bowl ad. Here's the sign-up link-- Skittles Deliver the Rainbow Contest 

Three main take aways~

• People want instant gratification/quick delivery 
• Using a celebrity popular in current memes makes your ad 10x funnier
• This is an un-skippable ad

    The value proposition communicated through this advertisement is speedy delivery and/or yummy skittles. During the pandemic, grocery stores were empty. Everyone was at home, scared to interact and catch the virus. Delivery services started growing in popularity, allowing people to eat from their favorite restaurants, and shop at the grocery store, without ever leaving the house. Of course, we fell in love with the convenience and even after the vaccine came out, a lot of people still use these services. Platforms like Door Dash, Instacart, Grubhub, UberEats and Postmates, have been very successful post pandemic. Even though it's a lucrative market, it's gotten pretty over saturated so there isn't much room for new competitors. Go Puff claims what sets them apart from their competitors is a promise for your delivery to arrive in 15 minutes or less.

    I found this ad genius, entertaining, and creative. Companies have been using weird creatures for the purpose of advertisement forever, but this one is remarkable. They made him look so ugly its adorable and his pessimistic attitude is really funny.  For example, he says things like, "I didn't sign up for this. I have no free will." and screams as he's sent back to the forest he came from. The whole concept of being able to blow a magical horn and make your craving appear is a great play on todays want for instant gratification. This perfectly aligned with Go Puff's branding, as the first words I read on their website were, "the future of shopping is instant." Since Elijah is also growing in popularity across social media right now for his funny, awkward personality I thought it was a perfect choice for this character.  The idea of actually being able to order him to your house is also unlike any other campaign I've ever seen and genuinely had me wanting to sign up. Filming the upcoming advertisement live is an innovative but risky method, if the winner is truly randomized then you never know what you're walking into so I'm excited and curious to see how that goes when it airs.

I love the execution of this ad, its perfect paced and is funny enough not to skip. I do have three complaints about this matter. The first is when he's explaining how to sign up for the Go Puff special delivery, he talks really fast. Because I actually had to rewind and listen to it a couple times over, I would have slowed this part down a little and maybe explained it in a way that made more sense. Secondly, I think promising 15-minute delivery, not matter what, is dangerous territory. Its setting a really high expectation for drivers especially the ones in bigger cities and I fear that kind of pressure would cause accidents and illegal behavior. Theres a reason most delivery services display individualized time estimates based on the order. I also just don't like the name Go Puff, it's not catchy, it doesn't roll off the tongue, it kind of sounds like a vape to be honest. 

Throughout this process, I learned about how humor and innovation sells. I learned there's a new delivery service in an already over-saturated and over-priced market, and I learned what Elijah Woods would look like as a red head with a curly mullet (strange).