By Tim Binnall
Thanks to a commercial airing in Germany, tourists from the country who visit Loch Ness have taken to throwing candy into the water in the hopes of catching the attention of the site's legendary 'monster.' The weird trend was reportedly noticed by longtime Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who mused on Facebook that "I've been wondering for a while why German tourists keep offering me Haribo sweets and laughing." Declaring "another mystery solved here at Loch Ness," he provided a link to an ad produced by the company which features the famed cryptid in a starring role.
In the commercial, a tour guide leads a group on an expedition to Loch Ness which is conveyed via bagpipe music and a cartoonish sign depicting the elusive beast said to lurk there. However, when the creature fails to make an appearance, the man attempts to assuage the disheartened visitors with some candy. And, as you've likely surmised by now, they wind up being just the thing to lure the monster out of the water as it emerges behind the guide and, to the astonishment of the tourists in the ad, snatches one of the sweets when he tosses it up in the air.
Undoubtedly, German visitors trying to reenact the act while vacationing at Loch Ness is likely more of a tongue-in-cheek gesture rather than a genuine attempt at catching a glimpse of the creature. We'll leave it up to wildlife experts to weigh in on whether or not it's good for very real creatures living in the loch to have candy tossed into their ecosystem. One thing that seems certain, however, is that if it were possible to entice Nessie with some sweets, the obvious choice really should be Canada's Bigfoot gummy candy.