No, this is definitely selling candy. People are talking about Skittles. That sells candy. Also, I'm betting that this was very, very cheap relative to other means of marketing.
I can only think of one other use for a website of a brand of food items: informing the visitor of other products under the same brand or made by the same company that the visitor might not know about. This design does a poor job of doing that, but I think a web site can be a trendy topic of discussion as well as informative if it's done the right way.
From the little I know about marketing, most of the techniques that aren't pay-per-click/action are largely faith-based initiatives. I don't see why this would be less effective than an interesting TV advertisement.
I can only think of one other use for a website of a brand of food items: informing the visitor of other products under the same brand or made by the same company that the visitor might not know about. This design does a poor job of doing that, but I think a web site can be a trendy topic of discussion as well as informative if it's done the right way.