Surreal Chupa Chups: The Story of a Lollipop on a Stick

How Chupa Chups was born

Let's move to Barcelona in the middle of the 20th century. The Spaniard Enrique Bernat receives the rights to manage his grandfather's company - the apple jam factory - Granja Asturias. Enrique succeeds, the enterprise flourishes, but in a few years the young man makes an unexpected and fateful decision: the company, which produced about 200 types of products, begins to produce only one - lollipops. So, in 1958, Chupa was born, and later the famous Chups was added. The name of the brand comes from the Spanish verb "chupar", which translates as "to suck".

In those days, no one produced caramel specifically for children. The main difference between Chupa Chups caramels was how you can eat them.

I saw that sweets are not suitable for children. Their hands become sticky, causing problems with their parents.

That is why Enrique Bernat added wooden sticks to his candies. Yes, children did not dirty their hands and clothes. Later, the wooden stick was replaced by a plastic one.

Surreal Chupa Chups page

Originally, Chupa Chups only had seven flavors: strawberry, lemon, mint, orange, chocolate, coffee with cream, and strawberry with cream. Its popularity grew, the amount of caramel increased, and eventually new flavors appeared. The business was expanding, entering the international market, and there was a need to make Chupa Chups more recognizable — to add a unique packaging design.

Enrique understood that a hook was needed to launch a product outside of Spain and to attract new customers. In search of this hook, he went to the Spanish town of Figueres, where he met an artist and sculptor, one of the main representatives of surrealism - Salvador Dali, who at that time was already one of the most influential international figures in the world.

There were no months of thinking, dozens of options, approvals and discussions. The artist came up with an idea in about an hour - a daisy should be depicted on the logo, and the inscription Chupa Chups should be added inside. The logo was placed at the top of the package so that it was more visible and had its own special feature. It was a quick and fateful change for the brand.

Marketing steps

The brand's consumers grew, their age increased, and marketing campaigns changed with them. The brand's first slogan sounded like this: "És rodó i dura molt, Chupa Chups", which translates as "Round and long-lasting". It was quite a provocative slogan, but it also attracted a lot of attention.

But this was not the constant slogan of the company. Sometimes Chupa Chups adapted to the current issues of its time. So, for example, in the 1980s, marketers decided to use an anti-smoking slogan that urged people to stop smoking and start eating lollipops. Some packages even used parody inscriptions "Sucking does not kill".

In the late 1990s, the company took a bold step in the promotion of the lollipop and began advertising the product with sexual undertones to a completely adult audience. The company published provocative posters and videos that evoked unambiguous associations among consumers.

Further fate of the brand

The business grew rapidly and became quite successful. Within five years, Bernat sweets were sold in 300,000 retail outlets. Twenty years later, Chupa Chups was already known to the whole world: USA, Great Britain, Denmark, Portugal, Japan and a number of other countries where branches and factories were opened.

In the 1980s, the company expanded into European and North American markets, and in the 1990s into most Asian countries, including South Korea. And Chupa Chups became the first candy to fly into space. In 1991, Bernat transferred official control of the company to his son Javier, and in July 2006 the company was completely acquired by the Italian group Perfetti Van Melle.