Jenne' forgive me.....I'm turning on the fire hose.
What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints?
It's amazing and completely insane.
I've been asleep for some time now but several weeks (or months) ago two guys (Fritz Grobe (the short one) & Stephen Voltz (the tall one) - if you watch the video below) went out on there own and started messing around with Mentos and Diet Coke. As far as I can tell they have created well over 150 different experiments that involve dropping Mentos into a 2 Liter bottle of Diet Coke. Here's a short and long example. 
Download extreme_diet_coke__mentos_experiments.mov
WOW what fun! What a great example of social media. Their efforts granted them their 15 minutes of fame (and then some). They have been on NPR, Letterman, CNN and hundreds of local news stations to discuss the madness of their video experiments.
In addition to pure fun, you've got to agree that this is a great example of consumers actively engaged in a deeper relationship with a brand. They have decided to define their engagement with Diet Coke and Mentos. THEY have decided on that day what the brand personality of Diet Coke and Mentos means to them.
Sadly, the result of this experiment at a corporate level has created an obvious clash between new world marketing and thinking and old world marketing and thinking.
I cite the evidence - brace yourself - the following are a couple of paragraphs lifted from the WSJ.
"The popularity of the videos — Mentos says it has found some 800 online — is producing a gusher of free publicity for the candy maker, a unit of Italian confectioner Perfetti Van Melle. "We are tickled pink by it," says Pete Healy, vice president of marketing for the company's U.S. division. The company spends less than $20 million on U.S. advertising annually. He estimates the value of online buzz to be "over $10 million." The company is considering striking a marketing deal with the two men responsible for one of the more elaborate videos — using 101 two-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 523 Mentos to create a dancing fountain like the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas — posted on EepyBird.com, Healy says.
Coca-Cola Co. is much more blase. "It's an entertaining phenomenon," said Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott. "We would hope people want to drink (Diet Coke) more than try experiments with it." Coke could use some extra buzz right now. Sales volume of Diet Coke in the U.S. was essentially flat last year, as consumers switch from diet sodas to bottled water and other noncarbonated drinks. But McDermott says that the "craziness with Mentos . . . doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke."
Oh yeah - then there's more...
"Many companies that have spent years and millions of dollars nurturing a brand aggressively try to retain control of how it is portrayed in public. Last year, FedEx sent a Tempe, Ariz., man a cease-and-desist letter demanding he take down his Web site that showed furniture — such as a desk and chairs — made out of FedEx boxes. "The FedEx brand is one of our most valuable assets," says Howard Clabo, a FedEx spokesman. "In this particular instance, we simply asked that the violator stop using our brand for their personal benefit." The site was down for a brief period but reappeared earlier this year."
DOESN'T FIT THE BRAND PERSONALITY?!?!?!?!?!?
AGGRESSIVELY RETAINING CONTROL OF HOW THEIR BRAND IS PORTRAYED IN THE PUBLIC?????!?!?!?!?!?!??!?
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!! WHAT ABOUT THAT WHOLE MIDDLE GROUND WHERE YOU'RE AN IDIOT.....
This type of response is quickly becoming a whole new wing of examples and case studies for guy's like Doc Searle's, Joseph Jaffe, Seth Goodin, and Jeff Risley. This really has become a classic case of missed opportunities smothered with corporations that need to get a clue.
Theses 1 – 6: Markets are Conversations
Thesis 7: Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy
Theses 8-13: Connection between the new markets and companies
Theses 14 – 25: Organizations entering the marketplace
Theses 26-40: Marketing & Organizational Response
Theses 41-52: Intranets and the impact to organization control and structure
Theses 53:71: Connection the Internet marketplace with corporate Intranets
Congrats to Mentos - they get it. For their brains and willingness to get into the 21st Century I went out and bought $20 worth of Mentos and passed them out to 10 friends with a request to tell 10 friends what a great product Mentos is if you want to have a refreshingly good time. (I'm such a whore).
I'm done.....
