Ford Racing: 125 Years of Pure Speed
Bringing the legendary legacy of Ford Racing to life through an immersive 360° experience at the WEC São Paulo
The Right Way to Open Mentos
Mentos and VML turn a century-long lack of packaging instructions into a viral challenge celebrating Gen Z's creativity and authenticity
For nearly a century, Mentos has been a household name without ever telling anyone how to open its packaging. Instead of creating a belated instruction manual, VML and Mentos turned this historic "blank space" into a stage for self-expression. By challenging the public to show their own unique way of opening the iconic stick, the campaign transformed an automatic, everyday gesture into a viral phenomenon of co-creation, memes, and cultural engagement.
When we realized that, in nearly a century, we’d never taught anyone how to open Mentos, we saw an opportunity to play with Gen Z’s inventive spirit. We want to show that there isn’t just one right way—there’s a way for everyone. The campaign invites everyone to turn even the simplest gesture into something creative, opening the door to new ideas, memes, and, of course, plenty of humor
In a market saturated with one-way advertising, legacy brands often struggle to connect genuinely with Gen Z — an audience that rejects conventional marketing and demands autonomy. VML’s challenge was to take a 93-year-old classic product and place it at the center of youth culture, transforming a simple, everyday act of consumption into an exciting opportunity for personal expression and digital entertainment.
Gen Z is obsessed with life hacks, shortcuts, and customization; they love reinventing simple processes to make them uniquely theirs. Looking closely at the product, we realized that Mentos packaging has never featured an "open here" guide. This lack of instruction, which some might see as an oversight, was actually the brand's greatest engagement asset: a century-old, implicit invitation for consumers to write their own rules.
The solution was the "The Right Way to Open Mentos" campaign (driven by the hashtag #AbraSeuStick). Kicking off with a playful hero film, the initiative challenged the public to showcase their personal opening techniques. The strategy scaled rapidly as influencers and celebrities shared their most unusual methods. On TikTok, a Branded Mission invited users to submit their own videos, turning the platform into a living gallery of humor, creativity, and consumer-led content.
By giving up control over the "correct" way to enjoy the product, Mentos earned the ultimate Gen Z currency: authenticity. The campaign successfully shifted a passive consumption habit into a massive engine for organic, user-generated content. The explosive engagement on TikTok and social media proved that by putting the consumer in the spotlight, Mentos didn't just refresh its brand relevance; it turned its iconic stick into a symbol of creativity and cultural connection for a new generation.
