Gigantic Popsicle Floods Manhattan Square, 2005

Who’ve guessed Snapple’s attempt to erect the world’s largest popsicle in the world would result in Manhattan’s denizens fleeing the streets to save their footwear from getting gunged? Read on to find out what occurred.

It was the height of a June Summer in the heart of Downtown Manhattan, New York where the possibly underemployed directors of Snapple, a soft drink manufacturer, made a brave but foolhardy attempt to surpass a Guinness record for ‘World’s Largest Popsicle’.

Snapple mixed and froze a gargantuan icy doppelganger of its new kiwi-strawberry ‘Snapple on Ice’ then the frozen treat was hauled by freezer truck from Edison, N.J to the Big Apple.

Crowds thronged Union Square with the hustle and bustle of city life around them and enjoyed the shade its trees offered from the sweltering sunshine of June the 20th.

The popsicle had arrived; this monolith of sweet, sticky ice 7.7m (25ft) high and weighing in at 17.5 tonnes was being raised by a crane to be stood upright, and with much fanfare.

The sweet celebration turned sickly, however, as it started to melt before it was even fully erect. Gallons of pink goo began to slosh down nearby streets and anyone who treasured their footwear fled the square. Cyclists and automobiles slipped in the ooze as fire trucks converged and the police closed off streets to contain the publicity stunt gone wrong.

The spectacle ended in farce when Snapple officials abandoned the Snapple-raising at a crowd-disappointing 25-degree angle, failing the record-breaking attempt in the process. The mushy giant block was then trucked away before it could do more damage and a television-sized ice sculpture in the shape of the Snapple logo took its place.