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If you’ve ever worried about the effect of Pop Rocks on soda, you should definitely check out what a Mentos can do to a 2 litre bottle of Diet Coke (like cause a 100 foot geyser). According to AdFreak, the two companies have had completely different reactions to the viral videos circulating. Mentos loves it, while Coke is not amused, and doesn’t think it fits their Diet drinker profile. In any case, I’m just glad to see that kids have finally moved beyond experimenting with the traditional baking soda and vinegar explosions.
I can think of at least one reason the companies are reacting differently — Diet Coke dominates its market, while Mentos needs all the publicity it can get. Aside from those great old “freshmaker” ads, when was the last time you thought of anything even remotely related to Mentos?
posted by Mary on 6-13-2006 at 1:21 pm
heh… agreed. I know 14 year old myspacers aren’t their target market, but the attitude strikes me as a little stodgy, and opposite from the fun campaigns they’ve run lately (the ones with all the bubbles). After all, free publicity is free publicity. And any company that spends 60 million on their diet soda campaigns (at least that’s what they were spending in the early 90’s) should be happy anytime someone’s gleefully talking about the drink.
posted by Mangesh on 6-13-2006 at 1:48 pm