I used to hate the old Mentos ads from the 1990s, where some jerk would pop a Mentos candy and then find a way to sneak into a concert or something, as if nobody could scam their way into anywhere without eating a Mentos candy first. (I’m surprised Mentos weren’t banned as a result of this kind of thing, inspiring so many acts of delinquency and trespassing.) But now that they’re gone, I almost miss them. But maybe they ended this silly old campaign to keep drug smugglers and terrorists from using them to similar effect.
I can imagine a situation where some drug smuggler is going through customs at the airport, and he notices they are searching everyone’s bag. Well, worried about being busted, he pops a Mentos, and he’s instantly inspired! So he takes a small bag of drugs and plants it in the side pocket of the guy in front of him in line, and when the guy gets busted, our drug smuggler guy is waved through customs with the big stash of drugs. Then, after he makes it through customs and leaves the building, he flashes a huge bag of drugs at one of the customs guys who sees him through a window; the customs guy smiles and wags his finger, and the drug smuggler pops a Mentos, smiles, and gets away clean (and fresh, since Mentos is “the freshmaker”!).
And how about this? Some terrorists are trying to break into an infectious disease laboratory, but they don’t know how they’re going to get past the guards. They see a van parked outside, and after popping some Mentos candies, they find it unlocked, and put on some hard hats and scam their way past security. Then they go get infected with some deadly weaponized disease, come out covered with boils and stuff, sneak out of the facility, and as they begin to make their escape, one of them smiles at the guards and pops a Mentos, and the guard shrugs and laughs.
(Sorry, but this is what those old ads make me think of these days.)
Here are some old examples of the silly Mentos ads from the 1990s:
