It to be 51 years back when this question was first asked: How plenty of licks go it take it to get to the facility of a Tootsie Pop? The animated advertisement shared by the Tootsie Roll industries on YouTube shows a young young asking various animals this question, all of whom confess the they"ve never made it without biting through. Finally Mr. Owl declares the answer come be 3 licks, due to the fact that that"s all he can regulate without crunching into the chocolate, Tootsie role center. Also viewers that aren"t old sufficient to have seen this ad on television once it very first aired room likely acquainted with this playful Tootsie popular music campaign. According to better Marketing, it"s one advertiser"s dream: one of the most successful and also enduring ad campaigns even after five decades, and also one that this day still to adjust tongues a-wagging — or rather, a-licking! since even after ~ 51 years, there"s no clean answer to this question.




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The official Tootsie Roll sectors website says that a group of researcher in the Perdue University engineering department decided to prize the question once and also for all by inventing a licking machine. That"s right: A licking machine, developed to act prefer a human being tongue. And the results? the took their licking machine an median of 364 licks to acquire to the center of the lollipop. One might think that this would placed the concern to rest, however it transforms out that various other licking test (official and also unofficial) have had actually much various results. 


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Tootsie Roll markets shares on their main website the an engineering student in ~ the college of Michigan designed their own licking machine. The contraption came up v a higher number: 411 licks to gain to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. A team of center school college student went for a much more traditional technique of simply licking Tootsie Pops, and also managed to gain to the facility with an exceptional 144 licks. 


The dispute was freshly reignited top top Reddit, once one user mutual the results of the Perdue university study. User UnstuckTimePilgrim responded that they performed their very own lick test as a kid, and it take it 1,150 licks to reach the center. For their initiatives they obtained a certificate indigenous the Tootsie Roll firm and ar fame! various other users ~ above the thread shared similar results, with lick counts ranging from 1,012 come a high the 1,436. However, user Freeman7-13 said that in a Tootsie Pop science experiment in ~ their college it took only 800 licks. 

It seems even after fifty percent a century we"re no closer come agreeing ~ above how plenty of licks it takes to obtain to the facility of a Tootsie Pop. Several users ~ above this Reddit thread carry out agree around one point though: come feeling an extremely frustrated v Mr. Owl in the Tootsie Pop ad (shared top top YouTube) — because that falsely claiming the it only takes three licks, and for stealing the child"s lollipop!