"Actually, almost none of the conversation about the stuff has to do with any of the things that make Skittles Skittles: It’s just folks mentioning Skittles to get on the Skittles home page."
He clearly misses the point. They're mentioning Skittles and that's effective brand building.
Several of them seem to be mentioning Skittles to build their own 'brand' - online persona/spamming/looking cool/etc
I'm really not sure having your brand associated with spam/abuse/people trying to say idiotic+offensive things, is a good idea personally. It's like a massive bait to get people to abuse your product.
The google serps are already filling up with links between "skittles" and random abusive offensive stuff.
Skittles obviously thinks that mere mentions of Skittles is effective brand-building. I do, however, dispute that mentions are very useful except as a stunt. And surely at some point the association of Skittles with racism, vomiting, etc. doesn't constitute "brand building" in the least.
He clearly misses the point. They're mentioning Skittles and that's effective brand building.