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Our Commercial Culture: Mentos Mystic

Commercials rarely encourage humans to be the best we can be, to rise to new heights of consciousness and to meld mind, body and soul. Well, Mentos has done just that, with their inspirational guru Dragee giving us all someone to look up to. So what if he dies trying...

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Commercials rarely encourage humans to be the best we can be, to rise to new heights of consciousness and to meld mind, body and soul. Well, Mentos has done just that, with their inspirational guru Dragee giving us all someone to look up to. So what if he dies trying to hug poisonous snakes? At least he tried, and that's more than many of us can hope to ever say.

Anyone notice a certain someone's humor showing behind Dragee's voice like an elephant behind a telephone pole? Yep, like most advertising, this commercial owes much of its appeal to other people's creativity. So-called "creatives" in the ad industry like to steal things from the arts, and other cultural movements, repackage them as their own and make boatloads of money off them. Remember when every other motion-graphics-laced advert from shoes to pick-up trucks had that sweet graffiti swirling around all over the place? So urban.

The victim in this advert's blatant larceny is Will Ferrel's indelible tone and nonchalance, best exhibited in the character of Ron Burgundy. The resemblance is uncanny. To steal some of his parlance. See what I did right there?

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