Mzansi’s iconic bubble gum, Chappies, has been bringing consumers together with its colourful flavours and quirky ‘Did You Know?’ facts for over 70 years. Chappies was established in the late 1940s by Arthur Ginsburg at the Chapel at a factory in the small Johannesburg suburb of Troyeville.
Ginsburg’s idea of including lists of ‘Did You Know?’ facts on the inside of each gum’s waxed paper wrapper turned the great-tasting, two-for-a-penny gum into a cultural phenomenon. The questions were sourced from popular Springbok Radio quiz show ‘The Three Wise Men’, starring Eric Rosenthal, Arthur Blexley and Dennis Glauber. The company later approached academics from WITS University for more lists of questions, with between 5 000 and 6 000 ‘Did You Know?’ facts generated in those early years.
Chappies quickly became the country’s source of information with a wide range of bursting flavours. “Celebrating 7 decades is an amazing milestone to reach and we couldn’t have done it without the generations of consumers who still feel an incredibly strong connection to the brand,” says Mondelēz South Africa Category Brand Manager for Gum, Trushann Thomas.
The notorious brand has been running competitions throughout the years and has contributed positively to enquiring minds. This includes Renowned Durban-based Artist,Collin Sabapathy,he discovered his passion for art at the age of seven after he entered a drawing competition run by Chappies and won. He currently offers free art lessons to residents at the Cheshire Home for the disabled in Chatsworth in the hopes that he can ‘help them escape reality and find joy in something’.
