Pubdate: Sat, 03 Jun 2000 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Author: Monica Videnieks HOW GEN-X WAS SOLD A CHUP FIVE years ago, Cadbury marketing director Tim Stanford decided it was time to change the image of a tired, two-decade-old lollipop. He took a gamble and decided to expose the colourful children's Chupa Chup to the notoriously fickle teenage market. So when Anthony Mundine, the bad-boy of rugby league, announced his retirement while sucking on a Chupa Chup last month, Stanford knew the punt had paid off: the 40 cent lollipops - now as common in nightclubs as delicatessens - had the "it" factor among the hard-to-impress Generation X. "It was great," Stanford, 40, remembers, "Mundine is an idol among our market and we couldn't have wished for better publicity." Since 1995, sales of the Spanish-made lollipop, meaning "suck a lot", have soared 400 per cent, and the once-humble children's treat has been virtually reincarnated into a must-have accessory, particularly among young drug users. Those partial to using amphetamines, pumping dance raves and nightclubs where alcohol is virtually non-existent, thrive on Chupa Chups. "They've taken on a similar purpose to baby pacifiers in the dance scene," National Drug and Alcohol research centre information manager Paul Dillon explains. "When people are using amphetamines, whether it is speed or ecstasy, they grind their teeth and that's where the Chupa Chups come in, because they stop users from biting away the insides of their mouth." Many nightclubs now sell Chupa Chups over the bar or fill giant bowls full of the candy for patrons. Understandably, Cadbury, the "family" confectionery company that markets and distributes Chupa Chups, insists it has done nothing to promote or further the association between their lollipop and illegal drug use. But in advertising terms, this "bad" image is priceless. The perceived infamy of consumers of the lollipop has sent more teenagers and adults flocking to the corner store for Chupa Chups than ever before, and Stanford's approach has been copied by international distributors hoping for similar results. "At the moment these lollies represent non-conformity and it's 'cool' to be associated with that," University of NSW social psychologist Kipling Williams said. "It may not be that everybody who is eating these lollies is involved in the drug culture, but many would like to present the image that they are." Dr Williams points to similar fads that have swept the US. "In New York, the actor Kevin Spacey used to ride around the city on a push scooter and now everyone is doing it, it's human nature to want to be part of something that's different," he said. "But there seems to be a half-life to these things, where they get to the point of saturation and the rule is: if there are too many people doing it and it looks like you're conforming if you do it too, then that's not cool." Regardless, the popularity of Chupa Chups only seems to be getting stronger. Chupa Chup "teams" of attractive young people now attend fashion shows, celebrity parties and even the mardi gras, ensuring the right people, like Mundine and even Jeff Kennett, are seen sucking on a Chupa. Sydney University students Hannah North, 20, Annette Zawalinski, 20 and Angela Cropley, 20, also have started eating Chupa Chups again. "It's just something that everyone's doing, I don't really know why," Ms Cropley said. In Britain, even the Spice Girls promote their consumption. Australia narrowly trails only New Zealand and Germany in its demand and consumption of Chupa Chups. The Australian Chupa revival began in 1995 when Melbourne-based Tim Stanford decided it was time to resurrect waning Chupa Chup sales. "We reassessed it, we looked at who was eating them and why, and it became clear to us that it wasn't a children's brand, it had a lot of credibility in the teenage market," he said. Seizing on the opportunity, Cadbury instigated a bizarre, but subtle, advertising campaign, presenting the candy as "irreverent". And it worked. The abstract television commercials and print advertisements - often just white pop sticks - in teen magazines reinvigorated Chupa Chups. They are now recognised as the biggest "sugar" brand in the nation, with each Australian eating an average of five Chupa Chups a year. The Chupa Chups brand name is revered in industry circles, considered to be as powerful as the Uncle Tobys food label. Cadbury now sells an incredible 120 million lollipops a year, even bringing out limited edition flavours like pineapple and apple. "Teenagers hate being advertised to and the last thing we are trying to do here is advertise to them," Stanford said. "But they are the only people who really understand the advertising, it's very irreverent, it knocks fun at society and it just does things differently, and teenagers like that." "They're in all the decent clubs," a 21-year-old Sydney man told The Australian. "Anyone that's on it is on them, they go hand-in-hand with e's (ecstasy)." But Paul Dillon suspects the popular consumption of Chupa Chups to complement amphetamine use will soon be replaced by another drug accessory. "Eating Chupa Chups with amphetamines is definitely a younger thing, a stage," he said, "older users don't tend to do it, it's regarded as a bit obvious and a bit less sophisticated." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea