In Singapore, Do Your Civic Duty: Make Love!
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Mentos Singapore(NEW YORK) — Mentos is known as “The Freshmaker,” but a new ad campaign by the company famous for its brand of mints is asking the residents of Singapore to become baby makers.
“Why are you eating a mint, baby?” “So I can kiss you on the face.”
Those are the opening words of a three-minute YouTube video by Mentos that asks Singaporeans to “make a little human that looks like you and me” and “make Singapore’s birthrate spike.”
The unique national marketing campaign is tied to Friday’s National Day, the annual Singaporean holiday celebrated to mark the country’s independence from neighboring Malaysia several decades ago. The day always involves parades and concerts for Singapore residents to show their pride, but the Mentos ad encourages Singaporeans to skip the flags and cheers and show their patriotism by making love the night of Aug. 9 to solve the nation’s notoriously low birth rate.
“This August the 9th, it’s time to do our civic duty,” a deep-voiced man says in the video, to the beat of soulful rap music. “And I’m not talking about speeches, fireworks or parades.” (Woman in the background: “But I like that stuff.”) “I’m talking about the stuff after that stuff. I’m talking about making a baby, baby. You ready?”
“I’m a patriotic husband and you a patriotic wife,” the male rapper continues. “Singapore’s population, it needs some increasin’, so forget waving flags, August 9th we be freaking…”
Over shouts of “that’s right” and “the birthrate won’t spike itself!,” a female vocalist also joins in, singing, ”It’s National Night, let’s make Singapore’s birthrate spike.”
In the caption of the YouTube video, Mentos explains, “This August 9th Mentos calls on you* to celebrate not just National Day, but National Night too – and help give our population spurt it so desperately needs.”
The caption also includes a disclaimer that, “Only financially secure adults in stable, committed, long-term relationships should participate.”
Singapore has one of the lowest birthrates in the world at 7.72 births per 1,000 people, according to 2011 estimates from the CIA World Factbook reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Past attempts by the Singapore government to raise that figure have included everything from tax breaks and maternity leave, and coaxing by the country’s prime minister.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio