Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Diet coke + mentos = unhappy brand managers

There has been a renewed interest in practical science recently as seen in hundreds of video clips demonstrating that if you drop a mentos into a bottle of diet coke, a natural chemical reaction occurs and turns a refreshing carbonated beverage into a spectacular geyser. The story was even featured in Monday's issue of the WSJ. Coke's reaction has not been very enthusiastic: "It's an entertaining phenomenon ... [but] doesn't fit with the brand personality of Diet Coke". I sympathise, it is a far cry for Diet Coke's more feminine and sophisticated image. But it is very entertaining. Rich Smith thinks Coca Cola should capitalise on this user generated trend instead of snubbing it.

Yet another example of consumers 2.0. derailing a campaign from traditional advertisers' carefully laid out tracks.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joel,

You gotta check out www.CokeMentos.com! Top 5 Diet Coke and Mentos videos for you viewing pleasure.

Anonymous said...

Coke may not get it but Mentos does. Check how they are capitalizing on it at:

http://www.mentosgeysers.com

Anonymous said...

I like mentos

Anonymous said...

Thank you dude...

Mentos fun :d
sohbet
muslumanlar
sayfalar

diyet said...

This still works.