Marketing a Mountain

“Sherpas are mystified that Westerners spend so much time and money to see what to them are sometimes sacred but not very interesting mountains.”
-Jim Fisher on page 90 of Everest, Mountain Without Mercy

“The wolves pounced on him in a flashing tempest of teeth and claws. And as they tore through his parka and closer to his flesh, Josh had to laugh. For as bleak as this looked, it was still like puppy time at the petting zoo compared to the first time he was attacked by the pure and natural peppermint in Everest – the mint gum without mercy.™”
-Author Unknown, from “Merciless Tale #103” on the inside wrapper of an Everest Powerful Mint Gum tin.

During our first session in the Mind-Surfing class, Dr. Lankford told us to write down what we knew about Mount Everest. One of my favorite gums is Everest Powerful Mint Gum. They are little chunks of mint gum that pack a real punch. They use Everest to signify how powerfully cool the mint flavor is when you chew one. That is a catchy sales pitch.
When I read about how the commercialization of Mount Everest increased the tourism trade and how the Sherpas did not quite understand the big deal about it (on pages 90 and 91 of the assigned book), I figured they were just accustomed to the humongous mountain. They did not see it as an icon of a huge challenge, great height and bitter cold as many Westerners see it. To them, the gum would be like one of us looking at “Los Altos Chewing Gum.” I am sure they sense a level of majesty related to the highest peak in the world, but they are so familiar with it that the impact is smaller.
The ad executives that put together the Everest Gum concept saw a similar opportunity to capitalize on the iconic mountain to make money as the natives of Nepal. And what a concept! I noticed that on the inside of the package there are small stories of great challenges in the daunting cold. These main characters, like X-Game action figures, go hiking in the forest or climbing a mountain of snow boarding off cliffs and get into some horrible trouble. In each story, they are about to meet some grizzly fate, but hearken back to the first time they chewed an Everest Gum and realize that challenge (the powerfully strong mint flavor) was a much greater test. Pretty funny.
Along with the story is a URL to their website: www.everestgum.com. I checked it out. They sure put a lot of time and talent into it. They have interesting information in the site like the equipment used to climb. They also had a “Sherpa” in there that they treated like a cartoon. It was a picture of a native with the mouth cut out that would move up and down when it talked, like the pictures in a Monty Python ‘s Flying Circus cartoon sketch. I am not the type to get all offended by things like that, but I could plainly see that others would feel it denigrated the Sherpa.
When you think of the tourism, the books, the movies, the mint gums and all the other things that go along with commercialization of Mount Everest, you wonder if all this capitalism is exploiting this majestic icon. I hope the natives around the mountain gain greater comfort and do not lose their identity and traditions. They are not inanimate mountains for catchy product manipulation.