Chupa Chups is courting social engagement by solving a common customer complaint and giving influencers an opportunity for spectacle.
The brand scoured online discussions of its lollipops and found a common gripe: its wrappers are difficult to get off. In response, a new wrapper has been designed that is supposedly easier to open up. To promote the new version of the wrapper, BBH London designed a campaign featuring the hardest-to-open lollipop ever made.
BBH London sent out PR packages containing what Chupa Chups calls ‘the final boss’ of lollipop wrappers: a lollipop sealed in a carbon composite shell, wrapped in aramid fibres, coated in silicon carbide, and dipped in liquid rubber. According to a statement by Chupa Chups, this will make the packaging blade proof, flame proof, and resistant to heavy pressure.
‘We know the internet loves a challenge and we are aware of the conversations around opening a Chupa Chups,’ said Roel Nouws, chief commercial officer at Perfetti Van Melle (the company which owns Chupa Chups). “So we leaned into it.’
Influencers who receive these are invited to try and force them open, giving creators an opportunity to play with all manner of camera-friendly tools from flamethrowers to hydraulic presses. Indeed, The Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube is included on the list of creators getting one of these lollipops, and will be able to add it to the thousands of objects the creators have filmed in the press to viral success. Destructive videos are incredibly popular and this campaign gives creators an excuse to make a video with that same mass appeal.
Update 16.3.26: Some of the creator videos featuring the impossible-to-open lolly are listed as paid partnerships
