Novelty confections sweeten candy business - includes related article on alternatives to chewing tobacco for children and adults

Discount Store News, May 1, 1995 by Pete Hisey

Is it a toy or is it candy? Most often lately the answer is "both." There has always been an element of play in the toy industry (baseball cards packed with gum, for instance), but the level of toy infiltration has increased sharply over the past year.

BerZerk Candy Werks' candy-filled CandyCaller cellular telephone, introduced two years ago, is probably the benchmark in the category. The company has followed with two new introductions, a CandyPager and a candy-filled electronic CandyKeyboard that plays real tunes. Each sells in the $1.99 to $2.99 price range at retail.

But BerZerk Candy Werks will be up to its neck in competition this year as others move into the electronics category and more traditional novelty approaches vie for the consumer dollar.

Cap Toys has introduced one of the most comprehensive lines of what might be dubbed interactive candy. The company's lineup includes Spin Pop, a battery-powered holder that spins a Tootsie Pop or similar product (doing the licking work for the user); Wrist Pop, a watch-like version of Spin Pop; Rockin' Pop Microphone, a mike that plays various tracks while dispensing candy; a Batman Bat Signal candy/flashlight; and Screw Ups, a Rube Goldberg-like candy dispenser. According to the company's Jay Tapper, all Cap Toys items are real toys with replaceable candy and batteries, and made of high-impact plastic for longer life.

"Parents are willing to pay more for something that doubles as a treat and a toy," he said, "but they expect a certain degree of quality if they're going to spend $2 or $3." Most Cap Toys products, he noted, return as much profit as "six or seven candy bars" and then create add-on sales for refills, boosting the profit per transaction even higher.

Uniconfis Corp., which markets under several brands, including Chupa Pops, introduced Pop Pen (a lever slides out a pen at one end and a lollipop at the other). Gum masquerades as computer games on floppy disks (Maximum Carnage becomes Maximum Gummage), music CDs (R.E.M. becomes G.U.M.) and even take-out pizza (Pizza to Blow), complete with cardboard carton and a sugar version of mozzarella cheese. Other gum products include Melody Pops, lollipops that double as whistles, and Mac Bubble's Gum Fries, a McDonald's-like container of french fry-shaped gum. Uniconfis is also packing gum POGs in with more traditional cardboard, plastic and metal versions.

Like Uniconfis, Amurol Confections also looked to the entertainment industry with candy-filled Sega Game Gears and CD players. Other introductions included Checkbook Bubble Gum and a carbonated version of Big League Chew, the pouched bubble gum meant to look like chewing tobacco.

The carbonated approach to candy seemed to be gathering steam. Originator Carbonated Candy Ventures brought its Pop Rocks back to the market in two new configurations: chocolate coated (much better tasting that it sounds) and bubble gum Rocks. Uniconfis has a Crazy Dips lollipop and carbonated dip combination, which will be supported this summer with a mail-in Shout 'n Shoot voice-activated water gun promotion.

Concord Confections introduced Whistle & Chew, bubble gum that doubles as a whistle, and a candy TV Dinner that includes bubble gum spaghetti and candy peas and carrots. The company also showed Cookie Jar Candy, cookie candy packed in a miniature cookie jar, and Yolk Ums, egg bubble gum with a liquid core packed in a plastic egg carton.

Perhaps the most unique novelty at the Candy Show this year came from a small startup, Edible What?, which introduced laser-etched hologram pops in sports, wildlife and horror themes. Action Eats, Wacky Wildlife and Tastes of Terror (includes a Freddy Kreuger license) will appear at retail this spring (Wal-Mart's McLane subsidiary was the first to purchase a large order) at about $1 each.

Topps addressed the novelty market with Roller Pop, (a miniature candy paint roller), Casper Glow-in-the-Dark bubble gum and Bazooka Bursts (bubble gum with carbonated crystals). And Elite Confections USA showed a gum and sticker combo that delivers 10 individually wrapped sticks of gum with 10 Looney Tunes stickers in a foot-long strip for less than $1. The stickers are available in individual packs meant to sell for a dime. One hundred different stickers, which feature Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and their friends, comprise the collectible set.

RELATED ARTICLE: Chewing a healthier alternative

It may not be edible, but another kid-oriented product is faux chewing tobacco. Two companies introduced herbal chewing products at the Candy Show, while Oberto introduced Jawdust, a ground jerky product packaged in snuff-like tins and evidently aimed at giving kids, who are taking up tobacco-chewing in a major way, a healthier alternative.

Both herbal chews, Bacc-Off and Smokey Mountain Herbal Chew, are aimed at helping the estimated 70% of smokeless tobacco users who are concerned with health effects and quiting the habit relatively painlessly.

Smokey Mountain, which is sold in Wal-Mart's pharmacy department in appropriate markets, is made from red clover and is meant to be mixed with regular chewing tobacco with the percentage of tobacco reduced each week until the user is chewing pure clover. Smokey Mountain uses former football star Randy White, who quit chewing a few years ago, as its spokesman.