Chupa Chups, widely recognised for its colourful lollipops, has addressed a long-standing consumer complaint about its hard-to-open wrappers by launching a new packaging design — and introducing it through a tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign.
For years, social media users have joked about the struggle of removing the plastic wrapper from the popular candy. Instead of announcing the improvement through a conventional product update, the brand partnered with creative agency BBH London to transform the issue into a humorous digital campaign titled “Chupa Chups Impossible.”
The campaign’s video features people attempting to open a regular Chupa Chups, only to become visibly frustrated. The clip ends with the punchline: “The Chupa Chups struggle is real. So to launch our new, easier-to-open wrapper, we made it much, much worse.”
In the advertisement, the brand exaggerates the problem by creating a fictional “impossible” version of the lollipop. The candy is portrayed as being encased in a carbon-fibre core, wrapped with the same material used in bulletproof vests, coated with silicon carbide, and compressed using a hydraulic press to make it nearly impossible to open using fire, blades or physical force.
The real reveal comes when viewers learn that hidden inside the indestructible shell is the company’s newly redesigned wrapper, which is much easier to open. By highlighting the frustration in an exaggerated way, the brand turned years of online complaints into a playful marketing moment.
Felipe Serradourada Guimaraães, executive creative director at BBH London, said the campaign succeeded because it embraced the opposite approach of a typical product announcement. He noted that leaning fully into the joke helped make the campaign stand out.
To amplify the campaign online, Chupa Chups sent the “impossible” lollipops to well-known YouTubers such as The Hydraulic Press Channel and Kenny Deuss. The brand also launched the #ChupaSpeedChallenge, encouraging fans to film how quickly they could open the new wrapper and share the results on social media.
In a further nod to long-time critics, the brand even responded directly to older social media posts where users had previously complained about the wrapper design.
The campaign highlights how brands can use humour and self-awareness to address product shortcomings, transforming criticism into a creative marketing opportunity while introducing an improved packaging design.
