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Cadbury Schweppes Marketing Candy Ecstasy to Australian Teenagers

May 31, 2002 – An Australian subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes has produced a new candy that looks like the illegal drug ecstasy.

"The sugar-free ‘24-7' mints are marketed by Cadbury in push-button packs containing white pill-shaped mints. An official website for the mints features ‘24-7' adventures in a nightclub with a cartoon DJ shaking a container of the mints as he mixes dance music," says the Australian newspaper, The Advertiser.

Australian health officials have expressed concern about a product made to look like an illegal drug being marketed to impressionable teenagers.

They are also concerned that someone could surreptitiously replace the mints with ecstasy because they look so similar. The health officials have set up a working group to explore how to regulate such a product.

Interested readers who wish to prevent Cadbury from marketing ‘24-7' mints in the U.S. may wish to write Brad Irwin, President, Mott's Inc. (Mott's parent company is Cadbury Schweppes, London), P.O. Box 3800, Stamford, CT 06905-0800.

Sources: "Lollie Resembling Drug Causes Concern," Australian Broadcasting Company, May 12, 2002; "Concerns Over Mints Shaped Like Ecstasy Drug," The Advertiser, May 29, 2002; Mott's Inc. corporate website at http://www.motts.com.

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