This is the story of arguably the most famous Spaniard in the world, found in every shop, sold globally and everyone’s first choice: the world’s favourite lollipop, ChupaChups!
With over 5 billion sold a year, ChupaChups is one of the world’s most famous and widely distributed lollipops, selling to over 150 countries. Offering over 100 flavours, the ChupaChup’s success is down to what many other brands fail to do: keep up to date with modern society and generations. Collaborating with influencers and gamers, creating viral trends, a massive social media presence and extending the product catalogue to bubble gum, minis, sours, XXL sweets; Chupachups has managed to keep relevant while never abandoning their roots and what makes them special.
But how far back does ChupaChups go? The original idea dates back to 1958. Eric Bernat, an entrepreneur from Barcelona, first thought of the lollipop concept as he searched for a way to fix children’s sticky fingers whenever they ate sweets, in other words, a sweet on a stick a child could hold.
First, it was christened as ‘GOL’ (Spanish for goal), the sweet was the ball and the child’s mouth was the goal. This name was replaced in 1960 with Chups ( from ‘chupar’, which is suck in Spanish) which leads us to 1963 when an advert and radio jingle “chupa chupa chupa.. Un Chups” caught on and it officially adopted the name ChupaChups.
However, the ChupaChup journey doesn’t end here. The ChupaChup empire began properly in 1969, when Bernat sought to find his lollipop a rebrand. It is said that he met with the famous surrealist Salvador Dalí in a coffeeshop, when the artist doodled the characteristic ChupaChup daisy which was later printed on the wrapper.
Since then, ChupaChups has grown exponentially, even reaching space in 1995 and having its own Roblox experience for the children. Do you love ChupaChups? We chatted about this sweet on our recent show!
