|
 |
CMAC Home ::
News ::
Gross national product: Kids love extreme candy, the nastier the better |
|
Gross national product: Kids love extreme candy, the nastier the better
November 15 2005
(Yahoo.com)
Bayly Winder searched the shelves at Ricky's Candy, Cones & Chaos in Princeton until he found what he was looking for. There, amidst packages of Ooze Chewz, Slime Heads, Freaky Fingers and Brain Drain, was a miniature yellow 55-gallon drum marked Toxic Waste, a super-sour candy popular among kids from coast to coast.
"Gross," the 12-year-old Princeton resident said, "is appealing."
When it comes to kids and candy these days, gross is good. Yucky beats yummy; the nastier-looking and -tasting candy is, the better.
Extreme/novelty candy is one of the fastest-growing segments of the US$23 billion U.S. candy industry, and it's a year-round, not just Halloween-driven, phenomenon. Forget Snickers, Good & Plenty and Milk Duds. Kids want their candy sour, slimy, slippery, gooey and gross; accompanied by sound effects, flashing lights and spinning propellers; and in flavors that would make most of us gag.
Harry Potter-inspired Bertie Bott's Beans come in dirt, earthworm, ear wax, booger and other flavors. (What does dirt and booger taste like? See sidebar). Brand New Products, headquartered in Chicago, serves up a bloody, misshapen nose-on-a-stick that is actually an orange lollipop. Sour Flush, from KidsMania, consists of two pops that you plunge into a candy-powder-filled miniature toilet bowl. Alien Drool is a thick green liquid candy you squeeze through an eyedropper. "Like snot, oozing with fun," according to the package.
Don't forget Juicy Bugs ("Gummy Bugs with Gooey Guts!"); Slime Heads ("suck the candy head!"); Strawberry Candy Ear Wax; Fear Factor Slimy Gummy Octopus; Trolli Road Kill gummi candy; and the Porky Pooper Pooping Dispenser -- a plastic pig that poops tiny candy.
"You can get cows and penguins that poop, too," says Scott Hughes at Cleveland-based Groovy Candies, a candy retailer/seller.
"There's been a big uptick in gross candy (sales) in recent years," said Susan Fussell, spokeswoman for the National Confectioners Association in the U.S.
Bubbagum is a disturbing-looking, but thoroughly edible, set of crooked teeth and diseased gums. The Big Burp & Barf Candy Dispenser makes appropriately disgusting sounds. There are Sour Apple Stinky Feet, a chewy candy; Oh Ratz Gummy Rat Dispenser, and Brain Drips liquid candy.
"The more it looks like a body fluid, bug or something you'd find at the bottom of a garbage can, the better," Wendy Burt wrote in Distribution Channels, a publication of the American Wholesale Marketers Association.
These, clearly, are not your grandmother's candies. In fact, grandma just ran screaming in terror from the kitchen after watching granddaughter Jessica drain a bottle of Alien Drool.
"Extreme candy is becoming bigger," Hughes said. "The candy has not really changed; they're just adding gadgets. It's all about the gadget, the toy. The candy is almost secondary. We're buying stuff that farts and poops."
Gross was a major theme at the All Candy Expo, held in Chicago.
"Intense products remain popular; the more hair-raising, the better!" reported Traci Carneal of the American Wholesale Marketers Association. "Confectioners showed no inhibition in their offerings over the past year, bombarding consumers with all the gross, sour and novelty candies they could handle."
It's not enough any more that candy melt in your mouth; it should cause discomfort if not outright pain. One candy, Atomic Fizzzion, is designed "to explode, detonate or pop in one's mouth."
Sour equals sweet sales among kids. Toxic Waste, a "hazardously sour" candy, is the top extreme-candy seller at Ricky's Candy, Cones & Chaos. The candy dares you to take the "toxic challenge." If you keep one in your mouth for 15 seconds, you're a "wuss." Keep it in there 30 seconds, you're a "crybaby"; 45 seconds, a "toxic wannabee." Only if you go 60 seconds do you qualify as a "full toxie head."
"Toxic Waste is big, big, big," said Jeff Struble, director of customer service at the Princeton candy store, where "Sugar Sugar," "The Candyman" and other candy-related tunes play on the sound system.
Most extreme candy is made overseas. Toxic Waste is made in Pakistan. WarHeads are made in Taiwan, MegaWarheads in Holland and Belgium. Sour Rude Dudes, distributed by a Brooklyn-based company, are made in Spain. Sour Gummi Fries, distributed by Florida-based Marketing and Sales Essentials Inc., are made in Indonesia. Harry Potter Acid Pops, from Cap Candy, a division of Hasbro, are made in Mexico.
Forget Juicy Bugs; those ready to live on the extreme-candy edge need only check out HotLix. The Grover Beach, Calif.-based company offers a full line of real-bug candy, including Scorpion Lickers (scorpion-filled lollipops); Ant Candy (ant-filled clear hard candy) and Crickettes, real crickets in three flavors: salt and vinegar; bacon and cheese, and sour cream and onion. The salt-and-vinegar crickets are undeniably crunchy, albeit extremely salty.
Crickettes and the like are targeted at adults, but several kids on our panel repeatedly asked if we had any real bug-candy when we produced Wurmz & Dirt Cookies and Bug Factor lollipops, neither of which contain real bugs.
How gross can candy manufacturers get? The sky -- or, more accurately, the gutter -- is the limit. Stupid.com, a supplier of "useless, weird and funny stuff," offers Seeping Toe Jam, Leaking Ear Wax, Oozing Eyeball and Dripping Nose Snot candy.
Another Stupid.com product: Slimy Slugs, slug-shaped gummy candies. The pitch; "Have you ever had the urge to pick up a slug from the sidewalk and pop him in your mouth?"
With piercings popular, it was only a matter of time before someone introduced Pierced Tongue Candy, a candy tongue.
"Candy has got to catch kids' eyes, and it has got to be worth the price," Hughes said. "It's about who can make the craziest and grossest."
Is gross here to stay? Will Alien Drool, Crickettes, Dripping Nose Snot and their sticky, icky counterparts continue to grow and multiply, or end up in the bargain bin?
"I can see the category as a whole having some longevity," said Fussell, of the National Confectioners Association. "It might have some legs. Maybe eight of them."
 |
 |
|
|
|