Lurker the Second
22-06-2005, 19:54:25
Snapple execs sometimes are stoopid:
Snapple's 17 - Ton Popsicle Melts in N.Y.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 22, 2005
Filed at 2:32 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- An attempt to erect the world's largest popsicle in a city square ended with a scene straight out of a disaster film, but much stickier.
The 25-foot-tall, 17 1/2-ton popsicle treat of frozen Snapple unexpectedly quickly melted in the midday sun Tuesday, flooding Union Square in downtown Manhattan with pink fluid that sent pedestrians scurrying for higher ground.
Firefighters closed off several streets and used hoses to wash away the sugary goo as the 35,000-pound, Kiwi-Strawberry flavored pop gushed thousands of gallons of liquid.
The spilled slush was slippery; Several bicyclists slid to the ground after riding through puddles, the New York Post reported.
Snapple had been trying to promote a new line of frozen treats by setting a record for the world's largest popsicle, but called off the stunt before the ice-scraper was pulled fully upright by a construction crane.
Authorities said they were worried the 2 1/2-story pop would collapse.
''What was unsettling was that the fluid just kept coming,'' Stuart Claxton of the Guinness Book of World Records told the Daily News. ''It was quite a lot of fluid. On a hot day like this, you have to move fast.''
Temperatures hit 80 degrees in New York on Tuesday, the first day of summer.
Organizers weren't sure why it melted so quickly. The giant pop was supposed to have been able to withstand the heat for some time. It had been made in Edison, N.J., and hauled to New York by freezer truck in the morning.
Snapple official Lauren Radcliffe said the company was unlikely to make a second attempt to break the record, set by a 21-foot pop in Holland in 1997.
Snapple's 17 - Ton Popsicle Melts in N.Y.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 22, 2005
Filed at 2:32 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- An attempt to erect the world's largest popsicle in a city square ended with a scene straight out of a disaster film, but much stickier.
The 25-foot-tall, 17 1/2-ton popsicle treat of frozen Snapple unexpectedly quickly melted in the midday sun Tuesday, flooding Union Square in downtown Manhattan with pink fluid that sent pedestrians scurrying for higher ground.
Firefighters closed off several streets and used hoses to wash away the sugary goo as the 35,000-pound, Kiwi-Strawberry flavored pop gushed thousands of gallons of liquid.
The spilled slush was slippery; Several bicyclists slid to the ground after riding through puddles, the New York Post reported.
Snapple had been trying to promote a new line of frozen treats by setting a record for the world's largest popsicle, but called off the stunt before the ice-scraper was pulled fully upright by a construction crane.
Authorities said they were worried the 2 1/2-story pop would collapse.
''What was unsettling was that the fluid just kept coming,'' Stuart Claxton of the Guinness Book of World Records told the Daily News. ''It was quite a lot of fluid. On a hot day like this, you have to move fast.''
Temperatures hit 80 degrees in New York on Tuesday, the first day of summer.
Organizers weren't sure why it melted so quickly. The giant pop was supposed to have been able to withstand the heat for some time. It had been made in Edison, N.J., and hauled to New York by freezer truck in the morning.
Snapple official Lauren Radcliffe said the company was unlikely to make a second attempt to break the record, set by a 21-foot pop in Holland in 1997.