Junior Mints and TV

By: Liz Allen

If one candy were to keep a whole movie theater-worth of people happy for an hour plus, what candy do you think it would be? I’ll give you a mint, I mean hint. They come in an iconic, green and white, perfect-for-the-movies, rectangular box. What I’m describing to you are Junior Mints of course. Besides their delectable ratio of the chocolate coating with a minty filling, what made them have such long-lasting popularity since 1949? The power on society that pop culture holds. We as humans inherently like to follow the herd:

“You like Junior Mints? Well, I like them now too!”

Or, if you want a classic 80s television reenactment:

“You got two options, punk. You either give me your lunch money or give me your Junior Mints; everyone’s askin’ for ‘em.”

Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it went, but I’ll tell you what did happen; let’s work up a decade. Remember that one sitcom from the 90s? I’m not talking about Friends or That 70s Show, I’m talking about Seinfeld; only the most iconic American sitcom there is.

So, Jerry Seinfeld and Junior Mints. Let me tell you about it. One of the most memorable episodes of Seinfeld is called “The Junior Mint,” where Kramer and Jerry end up dropping a Junior Mint in Elaine’s ex-boyfriend’s open body during his surgery. Along with the Junior Mint tussle Kramer and Jerry have that resulted in the catastrophic drop, there is some pretty substantial dialogue regarding Junior Mints in this episode. Although Junior Mints were popular before this, this thirty-second scene along with some choice dialogue formed the peak of Junior Mints.

In the observation gallery, as if it were some movie, Kramer takes out a box of Junior Mints from his pocket, gets a handful, and eats them. Of course, Jerry is opposed to the inconsideration of Kramer’s eating habits. But, because of Jerry’s disapproval, Kramer tries to get Jerry to try one, and then the infamous fall into the open body. Although this is a twisted way to unintentionally promote a candy, what the people of the 90s saw were the actors of the most popular show eating something that could be found anywhere, and at a cheap price. This was not just “a little mint” anymore, “It’s a Junior Mint.”

After the airing of “The Junior Mint," Junior Mint talk became,

“Jerry Seinfeld is eating Junior Mints? I wanna have a Junior Mint!” and, “Did you see that one Seinfeld episode about Junior Mints?”

What have we learned from this domino effect of pop culture, to product, to people? We want to be a part of the crowd; the community. People will subconsciously adapt their behavior to match another person’s. The mass media has such a psychological effect on the ordinary person; and the majority of us don’t even realize the little impacts pop culture has made on our daily lives. To reiterate the impact of this twenty-minute episode, “Who’s gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint, it’s delicious!”