Skittles takes out a full-page ad asking people to stop throwing candy at Harry Styles
Skittles can hurt.

Harry Styles live on stage June, 2022.
Singer Harry Styles was hit in the face with a Skittle thrown by an audience member at a concert in Los Angeles on Monday, November 14. As he thanked the crowd during his Love On Tour concert he can be seen wincing and holding his eye.
Luckily, the “Watermelon Sugar” singer recovered from the incident because getting hit with a flying object from a far distance could cause serious injury.
The incident inspired Skittles to speak out on Twitter. “Didn’t think I needed to say this: Please don’t throw Skittles,” the candy company tweeted.
“The entire fandom thanks you for this. I think the person that threw them should be banned from ever buying them again,” a Styles fan responded to the tweet.
\u201cDidn\u2019t think I needed to say this: Please don\u2019t throw Skittles.\u201d— SKITTLES (@SKITTLES) 1668528220
Here’s footage of the incident.
\u201cwhoever the fuck threw a solid object at his eye, u literally ruined kiwi bc he wouldn\u2019t open his eye for the whole song\u201d— mandi\ud83c\udfe0HARRY TALKED TO ME?? (@mandi\ud83c\udfe0HARRY TALKED TO ME??) 1668494435
\u201cYALLLLLL. This goes without saying. \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb DO \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb NOT \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb THROW \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb STUFF \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb AT \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb PEOPLE \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb Harry Styles took a forcefully thrown skittles to the freaking eye last night. Come on, use some common sense!! \ud83d\ude21\u201d— jennie (@jennie) 1668550766
Skittles took things a step further on Saturday, November 19, by posting a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times warning people not to hurl their candy at anyone. “Protect the rainbow. Taste the rainbow. But please, don’t throw the rainbow,” the ad read.
\u201cPSA: Protect your eyes from Skittles (by eating them, not throwing them)\u201d— SKITTLES (@SKITTLES) 1668885645
This isn't the first time Styles has been hit with objects on stage. Earlier this year, he was hit in the crotch with a water bottle. He played the direct hit off with his trademark humor, “That's unfortunate.”
\u201cHarry talking to the crowd before the Unfortunate \nEvent at United Center in Chicago, IL - October 14(via @glambygab)\u201d— HSD Love On Tour (@HSD Love On Tour) 1665807250
He was also assaulted with a chicken nugget. After the crowd demanded he eat it, he refused because he’s a vegetarian. Plus, it was cold.
\u201chttps://t.co/rHCWvuQNEM\u201d— \u2661\u2728kalina midnights era\u2728\u2661 (@\u2661\u2728kalina midnights era\u2728\u2661) 1661654678
Let's hope that all of the publicity surrounding the pegging doesn’t inspire copycat Skittle tossers to pelt Styles even further. Styles probably doesn’t want Skittle hurling to become a concert tradition like when people throw toilet paper and shoot off squirt guns while watching “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Styles isn’t the first rock star to be assaulted on stage with candy.
The Beatles had some real troubles in their early years after guitarist George Harrison admitted that he loves jelly beans. Fans reacted by pelting him with candy while the band played on stage.
“We don't like Jelly Babies, or Fruit Gums for that matter, so think how we feel standing on stage trying to dodge the stuff, before you throw some more at us,” he wrote to a fan in 1963. “Couldn't you eat them yourself, besides it is dangerous. I was hit in the eye once with a boiled sweet, and it's not funny!”
The Foo Fighters had a similar problem after they made fun of Mentos commercials in the video for their 1996 hit, “Big Me.”
"Every time we played it, it would just start raining Mentos, and them mother fu**ers hurt," Grohl said according to Gigwise. "We did a show in Canada and, in the middle of the song, someone threw a pack, and it hit me right in the face. I was so pissed, I picked it up and said, 'It's been 10 fu**ing years since that video.'"
Here’s Grohl explaining the situation on stage.
Warning: Strong language.
Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them.
If you wouldn't say it to their faces, don't type it.
This isn’t comfortable to talk about.
Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.
in 2016, a video by Just Not Sports took two prominent female sportswriters and had regular guys* read the awful abuse they receive online aloud.
Sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat by as men read some of the most vile tweets they receive on a daily basis. See how long you can last watching it.
*(Note: The men reading them did not write these comments; they're just being helpful volunteers to prove a point.)
It starts out kind of jokey but eventually devolves into messages like this:
Awful.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
These types of messages come in response to one thing: The women were doing their jobs.
Those wishes that DiCaro would die by hockey stick and get raped? Those were the result of her simply reporting on the National Hockey League's most disturbing ordeal: the Patrick Kane rape case, in which one of the league's top players was accused of rape.
DiCaro wasn't writing opinion pieces. She was simply reporting things like what the police said, statements from lawyers, and just general everyday work reporters do. In response, she received a deluge of death threats. Her male colleagues didn't receive nearly the same amount of abuse.
It got to the point where she and her employer thought it best for her to stay home for a day or two for her own physical safety.
The men in the video seemed absolutely shocked that real live human beings would attack someone simply for doing their job.
Not saying it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Most found themselves speechless or, at very least, struggling to read the words being presented.
It evoked shame and sympathy.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Think this is all just anecdotal? There's evidence to the contrary.
The Guardian did a study to find out how bad this problem really is. They combed through more than 70 million comments that have been posted on their site since 2006 and counted the number of comments that violated their comment policy and were blocked.
The stats were staggering.
From their comprehensive and disturbing article:
If you can’t say it to their face... don’t type it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
So, what can people do about this kind of harassment once they know it exists?
There are no easy answers. But the more people who know this behavior exists, the more people there will be to tell others it's not OK to talk to anyone like that.
Watch the whole video below:
.This article originally appeared nine years ago.