Do mice dissolve in Mountain Dew? Pepsi uses claim as defense in lawsuit by ABC News WHAS11.com Posted on January 4, 2012 at 11:23 AM (ABC News) - Imagine this new ad campaign: How strong is your Mountain Dew? Powerful enough to dissolve a rodent! Not exactly Madison Avenue material, but that is exactly what Pepsi — the manufacturer of Mountain Dew — claims in an Illinois lawsuit.
In 2009, oil company worker Ronald Ball said he opened a Mountain Dew from his firm’s vending machine only to gag on a dead mouse inside. His attorney told ABC News that Ball stuck the mouse in a Styrofoam cup and displayed it to his co-workers. “He immediately called Pepsi,” said attorney Samantha Unsell, so the company could stop production on the assembly line that allegedly snagged a mouse. She said a Pepsi representative came to collect the dead mouse. But the evidence had apparently since been destroyed.
Later, Ball sued the soft drink company, seeking damages in excess of $50,000. Now as it seeks to dismiss the lawsuit, Pepsi argued Ball couldn’t possibly have gagged on a mouse because Mountain Dew’s powerful ingredients would have dissolved the rodent’s body before the can ever reached the vending machine. By then, Pepsi’s experts insisted, it would have become “a jelly-like substance.” In other words, mouse jam in a can. Yum! (If you bought six, would that be a “rat-pack?”)
Ball’s attorney is not impressed, calling Pepsi’s legal motion “a poor dissent.” Said Unsell: “It doesn’t say a lot about their product.” Pepsi’s attorney on the case politely declined our request for comment. No trial date has been set. Mountain Dew already enjoyed a reputation for its high-octane caffeine content. Now, Pepsi confirmed, it’s stronger than you ever imagined.
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