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Nicolette DiMauro
Ashley Humphries
English 1101-0002
04/03/15

Mentos Advertisement & Anti-Advertisement

Mentos originated in 1932 by the Van Melle brothers. They had an idea
to create a circular mint with a harder exterior and a chewy inside, which
was produced to the market in 1948 by Jim Mentos. This product was
launched in the Netherlands and made its way to the United States through
television marketing ("Welcome to Mentos"). Mentos always aimed to have
humorous marketing techniques, in the belief that it would draw in potential

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customers. Mentos advertising agency in another country submitted this
advertisement to Mentos but it was rejected because of the distasteful
message it overall portrayed. The creator clearly went over the top in the ad
Im revising, thankfully enough Mentos saw it as highly inappropriate and fat
shaming (Wade). Originally the advertisement was extremely judgmental,
overly self-centered and offensive to oversized women. Now after carefully
analyzing all the minute details, I changed the wording and visuals while
keeping the structure the same.
Originally, the Mentos advertisement extremely criticized heavyset
women or anyone without a petite body figure. It is strongly emphasized that
in order to be beautiful in our society you have to be skinny, little to no
body fat and a tiny waist. In this advertisement, this generalization is
perceived when the skinny girl says, I love hanging out with you. All the
boys keep looking at me to the heavyset girl. While she is stating what she
feels to be true, she is holding her up in the air like an inadequate object so
aggressively that the heavyset girls shoe is falling off. That statement alone
is showing how the long legged, skinny waist, petite girl believes that she is
overall prettier in the eyes of men. She is telling her friend that she is
basically using her to make her own qualities stand out. Mentos then adds
the phrase at the bottom, selfishness without guilt. This makes the
advertisement more insensitive, emphasizing that this product will allow you
to say what you feel without the consequences of feeling cruel, which is a
false advertisement. Another sign of false advertisement in this image is

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how the skinny girl is drawn; emphasizing how narrow her waist is which is
incredibly exaggerated, similarly how the fat girl almost looks like a bubble.
They made this difference between the two girls so drastic that it makes it
seem like they have nothing in common, when in reality they are more alike
then the advertisement portrays. The only thing separating them from
looking equal in the eyes of men is a certain percent of body fat, which
doesnt define who you are and never will.
The creator of this advertisement centered his/her entire idea on the
fact that men today sadly focus all their attention on the skinner girls as they
find them more attractive and see the heavyset population as something
much less and not even acknowledgeable. This representation has
absolutely nothing to do with the product being presented. The only way this
image could have anything to do with the product is if, they are representing
the heavyset girl as a Mento because of her shape and all the guys are
looking at her because of the product not because of how beautiful she is or
isnt. That idea is so far fetched and still distasteful but the only way I see a
possible connection. Publishing this advertisement could have had negative
reactions and lead to the younger generation seeing this on television or
even on paper and thinking its socially expectable to treat others this way.
Younger children tend to believe everything they see and hear to be true no
matter if it is accurate. That alone could of caused a ripple effect and little
girls and boy would think its okay to treat others that way. The slogan for
Mentos is stay fresh and this graphic designer decided to make a play on

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words. The humor the advertisement expanded on was the word fresh, as it
can mean either nasty or refreshing. The fresh sense of humor is easy to see
in the illustration and text but it is still not acceptable to make the
overweight girl feel as an accessory for the petite girl to carry around. When
deciding how to advertise a particular piece of merchandise, you have to
think of all the possibilities and which one will bring the best out of your
product. Creating a desire is a strong marketing technique and the original
message just didnt make you feel a need to encourage this behavior instead
it made you feel bad for the overweight girl, which is poor advertisement.
Another quality of successful advertising methods is repetition. Repetition
can help persuade your audience to want to buy your product because after
hearing something over and over again in a positive way, it will raise the
changes in more costumers wanting to purchase the product. However, in
the case of the original offensive advertisement, repletion made the
message worse. Depending how you use certain techniques, it could either
help your persuasion process tremendously or it can completely backfire.
The harsh repetition was throughout the entire advertisement. For example,
the quote I love hanging out with you. All the boys keep looking at me. and
the phrase selfishness without guild, along with the words single pack,
mentos surprising and mini. Those were all pieces that contributed to the
overall negative message of the original advertisement. Lastly, the creator of
this advertisement should have placed their self as a potential buyer and
consumer. Would they feel the need to buy this mouthwatering candy if

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they were over weight and felt the offensive message aimed towards their
self in particular?
Mentos is a mouthwatering candy but its equally enjoyable for
everyone. The audience for this product is wide spread, anyone who
essentially wants a chewy candy while at the same time having a breath
mint. However, this advertisement changes the audience more towards the
slimmer population of girls. I for one would not want to buy this product if I
was self-conscious about my figure because its very offensive and I would
not want to support the company by giving them profit. Mentos is supposed
to be about freshening your breath while enjoying a delicious candy at the
same time. Nowhere does this product persuade someone to act rash and
criticize the ones around you. Instead its about the long lasting freshness
which can more likely go along with an advertisement aiming to promote
long lasting friendships.
The anti- advertisement I created is aimed to show how two people can
essentially bring out the best in each other. Nobody is perfect but we all
have certain qualities that stand out and we should be able to feel confident
with who we are. Building another up, instead of tearing down their selfesteem is the message Im hoping to portray to viewers. This candy is
essentially sweet but the original advertisement was sour and thats my
purpose in changing it. The audience of my anti- advertisement is of all ages
and anyone who wants to indulge in a mouth freshening tasty mint. In the
creation of this anti- advertisement, I fist started off by changing the girls

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displayed in the advertisement. I changed them to two girl of equal size with
a little more muscle and strength. In the main caption, the one girl is now
saying, I love hanging out with you. We bring out the best in each other.
My purpose in doing this was to eliminate boys opinion and make it more
about friendship. I took out the Mentos single pack and changed it to Mentos
sharing pack to underline how this anti-advertisement isnt singular or
selfish. I also changed the phrase under that to, selflessness without regret
because I wanted to keep it along the same line as the original
advertisement but it needed an opposite message. Nobody would want to
live with guilt so this new message is showing you potentially how great it
feels to encourage other and in return have the same done to you. Being
selfless is a quality everyone should portray and creating images that
emphasize that could cause others to follow in those footsteps and act out
that character trait. Ideally, I wanted this advertisement to be up lifting and
encouraging. Friends arent there to point out your flaws and this improved
advertisement I created shows that. Lastly, I changed the words on the
bottom left from Mentos surprising, to Mentos friendship. It shouldnt be
surprising to anyone that your friend is truly there for you, to be a positive
influence that brightens your day and you should do the same for him/her in
return. For this advertisement, I think displaying it on isles where the product
itself is located will help draw in buyers and also showing this new edited
picture at the end of a Mentos commercial will really get the message out to

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my audience because television marketing has become a huge success over
the years.
Before creating the anti-advertisement I mentioned above, my other
plan was to have the heavyset girl holding the frail girl in the air with the
same saying as the original, I love hanging out with you. All the boys keep
looking at me. The message would have changed to self-satisfaction. I also
would of needed to change the saying at the bottom from selfishness
without guilt, to proud of who I am. Guy still look at heavier girls and
acknowledge their presence even if they dont find her attractive but who is
to say that men dont even find overweight girls to be pretty in the first
place? That is a stereotype that is embedded in our society and needs a
change. The only reason I didnt follow through with this idea of an antiadvertisement was because it still evolved around what guys tend to think
and make it seem like it all up to them to define if someone is beautiful or
not and that is very inaccurate. Both of the anti-advertisements I discussed
are improvements from the original and have a positive outlook on life but
the one I went with changed the message to be not about guys and more
about what friendships should be based on, bringing one up constantly.
In conclusion, I found a problem with this original Mentos
advertisement and so did the Mentos headquarters. It was never published
because it was portraying a wrong message of why you should have a
friend, while at the same time being extremely insulting towards an
overweight girl. The humor for Mentos commercials and textual

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advertisements are normally humorous and amusing but this on was just
over the top and had a negative feeling when you looked at the image and
read the words that went along with it. Their original product was in no way,
shape or form a good idea in how to persuade the audience to want to buy
and enjoy the product. However, now I truly think it is a much better product
just because of the message that goes along with it. It will capture the views
and potential buyers attention while at the same time being positive and
uplifting, promoting long lasting freshness, and a long lasting friendship.

Wade, Lisa. "Sociological Images." Sociological Images RSS. N.p., n.d.

Web. 06 Sept. 2010.
"Welcome to Mentos." Mentos. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.

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