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."