Check Out how Diet Coke and Mentos Scored Without Lifting an Advertising Finger

This is such a good example of the new paradigm discussed under the post on Social Computing that I had to share it with you. Millions of hits on this Internet Video produced by two amateurs who like to dabble in mad science can't be wrong. Long live distributed marketing! And, congratulations to Coke and to Mentos on scoring big without spending a dime.

From an article published in the Washington Post, Sunday, July 2, 2006 - by David Sharp of the Associated Press

Americans have a new way to celebrate the Fourth of July: Drop Mentos candies into 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and watch as the soda shoots skyward. For the messy technique, thank Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz of eepybird.com, "Entertainment for Curious Minds."

The two performers from Buckfield appeared in a three-minute Internet video in which they don goggles and lab coats and show the world how to create the geysers. The resulting 20-foot blasts have captured the imagination of millions.Grobe, a juggler, and Voltz, a trial lawyer, enlisted Mike Miclon, the owner of the theater where they perform, to operate the camera and a friend to create the toe-tapping techno music soundtrack. Miclon said his wife held an umbrella next to the camera just in case.Coke and Mentos have embraced the phenomenon.

Mentos, a subsidiary of Perfetti Van Melle USA, Inc., features the video on its Web site, and a Coca-Cola Co. spokeswoman said the Atlanta company is pleased that people are having fun with it. "You never can tell what's going to capture people's imagination," said Susan McDermott, the spokeswoman. For the record, she noted, people won't suffer harm from chomping Mentos and washing it down with Diet Coke.