08.07.2005

Juice flood as crane lifts ice Lolly

In a stunt to publicise its new frozen juice ice lollies (popsicles) Snapple, the producer of juice drinks, organized an attempt to break the record for the worlds largest Ice Lolly, currently held by a team in Holland that made a 9.5 tonne six metre high lolly in 1997.
Please register to see all images

The worlds largest ice lolly is lifted clear of the truck

The 17.5 tonne, 7.6 metre high, strawberry-Kiwi flavoured ice lolly was made in a horizontal mold, then packed in an insulated lifting jacket and trucked into Union square in Manhattan for the final stage of the record attempt, standing it up on its base.

Two mobile cranes were hired to offload the ice lolly and then tilt it carefully upright; the Guinness book of records insists that the lolly must be vertically free standing to qualify for the record.
Please register to see all images

One of two cranes that were on hand to tilt up the lolly

As the cranes began the tilting up, melting pink strawberry/Kiwi juice poured out of the bottom of its wrapper flooding the square with the sticky fluid, sending bystanders scurrying for higher ground. Fire and police services were called to the scene and several streets had to be closed off, while they were hosed down.
Please register to see all images

The leaking lolly goes back on the truck after the failed attempt

"What was unsettling was that the fluid just kept coming," said Stuart Claxton of the Guinness Book of Records
Snapple called off the stunt while the ice lolly was only partially lifted, fearing that it would collapse in the 80F/27 C degree heat.
Please register to see all images

New Yorks finest, hosed down the streets after the debacle

"We didn't expect it to melt so fast," said a Snapple spokesperson who also said that the company would offer to pay the city for the clean-up costs.