DiMauro1

Nicolette DiMauroAshley HumphriesEnglish 1101-000204/03/15

Mentos Advertisement & Anti-AdvertisementMentos 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 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 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 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 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 self-esteem 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 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 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 anti-advertisement 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 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.