Snapple Popzilla Unfreezes, Gotham Gets Even Stickier

The difficulty of physics being the very reason why people who wind up becoming PR and marketing people often decide to go that liberal arts route, it may come as little surprise that Snapple’s giant popsicle stunt failed today. It seems that the Snapple marketing folks’ attempt at erecting a Guinness Book record-breaking popsicle was called off when they remembered that old rule about phase changes: ice melts in NYC in June. But perhaps contributing more to the fiasco than the English majors was the group from the other hard science escape route: the lawyers. When one got a load of the Popzilla that was about to be erected, it set off the tort alarm bells, shutting down the event for good.

Manhattan’s Union Square, now even sticker than usual, still smells of kiwi and strawberry after the block was flooded with oozing Snapple as the beast melted ignominiously in the sun. The AP reported that onlookers had to scurry for higher ground, although that might be laying it on a bit thick.

The crane that was set to pull the popsicle upright was stilled when officials got nervous that slabs of Popzilla would rain down on the audience, perhaps killing someone, which even most PR people agree isn’t good PR.

Snapple did a pretty good job of making the best of it, though, quickly pushing releases and even a page of images to promote the demise of the pink leviathan. Heck, maybe it worked.