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        The caricature character tipitip’s adventures still continue in gums created by the caricaturist Bulent Arabacioglu. Children’s cheerful friend has changed his hair style and outfit, has married and had children over time.

By ozkan Guven

        If you chew gums then you know; adventures of cartoon characters are found in gums. Tipitip is one of them. When you open the gum first you smell it, and then you chew it. With a huge nose, a bowtie and big glasses, Tipitip’s adventure were read by excitement and collected by children in the old days. Modern time children do not follow maybe but his creator B. Arabacioglu still draws his clumsy and cheerful character’s adventures. Arabacioglu says ‘Tipitip was born before my real son, today my son is 28 and tipitip is 31 years old.’

How was tipitip born?

        I left school when I was studying Mapping Engineering in Yildiz University, because I wanted to be in the world of cartoons. I was 24 years old. We were not married yet, I told my sweetheart that I was starting to draw cartoons. In the third month of my professional life as a cartoonist I started to draw a few things in the extra sections of the Hurriyet newspaper. Following that I worked in the humor magazines Carsaf and the legendary girgir where I created the character ‘Ridvan the most hero’. In 1974 Kent Food company directors were searching for a sympathic character for kids. In those days the gums were flat, square shaped, first time in the country ‘bazooka’ type gums would be produced, and it would include cartoons. I drew many scketches of different characters. They chose tipitip among them.

“The first voice over was done by the actor Sener Sen”

Where did this name come from?
        When Kent directors were looking at the first skecthes they had comments like ‘ what type is this character’ or ‘ this type is quite a type’ etc. Right there the name was given to our character. It became so popular among the kids that we created its cartoon after 3 years. At that time there was only state television TRT. We started to braodcast a tipitip advertisement one minute long every week. 55 seconds of it was some adventure of tipitip and 5 seconds was the gum advertisement. We worked on it 8 people including my wife, writing, drawing and presenting it. After we drew and colored it we had take it to the sound recording. Actor Sener Sen became the voice in the first one we did. At that time Sener Sen was still with the City theatre. It was really a very successfull voiceover. We continued this for about 2-3 years. The cartoon was stopped due to the economic crisis.

Why did the children liked tipitip so much?

        Children were seeing tipitip in the gums and also on TV. They were waiting for Fridays to see tipitip like today’s viewers waiting for the tv series. They were imagining tipitip like a living creature. We started receiving letters from the children. They were writing to tiptitip, he was their hero and everything their hero did was right. There were even kids complaining about their mothers and fathers to tipitip. I was just a cartoon drawer but suddenly i started to feel like pedagogist., if i drew that it would be bad for children, if I drew this they would misunderstand etc., I started to have self-control when i drew in a way.

1974

        Year 1974... Tipitip’s first appearance with a bow tie, big white glasses and a round hat was very popular with kids. Tipitip was a cute well behaved child and would mess up everything he tried to do...

2005

        When we come to year 2005 Tipitip is still as clumsy as ever. But he looks very different. He now has a normal tie instead of a bow tie.

“Do you have gold, womens’ stockings and tipitip?”

        Tipitip had a lot of followers in the eastern bloc countries. When I travelled to Romania and Bulgaria with my wife in 1976, I was asked three things in the black market : Gold, Womens’ stockings and Tipitip. For some period of time we printed the writings in Tipitip in Turkish, English and Russian.

“There was a need for a companion so Tipitosh (tipitos) was born”

        Since the kids liked tipitip so much i guess the company organized many campaigns for them, right?
        Well the truth is just the opposite. The kids kind of started their own campaign. They collected the caricatures and sent them to the company. There was no campaign or whatever. We came to a point where we had collected 84,000 adresses! The company started to send them t-shirts and pens etc. It was a very warm relationship. We never took advantage of the kids. Tipitip was a product but we never said its a great gum etc. in the commercials. I made calenders and puzzles for kids with the slogan “your cheerful friend”.

“What are the differences between today’s and 70’s Tipitip?”

        In the beginning Tipitip was alone. There were other characters coming and going. He used to have a bowtie, a round hat and large glasses. If he was 15 years old at that time now he is 45. I wanted to draw certain jokes but couldn’t do it with him alone. There was a need for a companion, a wife or sth. This way Tipitosh came along. After a while people around me started saying why doesnt he have kids? Does he have problem or what? Then there was his son Tipican, his daughter Tipicik and his dog Tipitop.

But Tipitip didn’t change his behaviour, right?

        No. Tipitip is a good family boy, picky but clumsy. He is still like that. Clumsy but a cheerful guy.

The kids nowadays, are the still following tipitip?

        Maybe the kids’ choices are changing. Now there are gums produced with very low cost, we are not10:52 25.08.2008 able to compete with them. Right now Tipitip is one of the best known brands but the sales are very low. Its far away from old days because of today’s market conditions. Tipitip does not have his old glorious days.

Does this reflect on your drawing of the caricatures?

        Of course, my motivation is not the same. I miss the old days. The world of kids was much different then. They had much more imagination. Now everything is given ready in front of them. Even when you watch a series on Tv they put the background laughter sound saying ‘ you wouldn’t know, we have to tell you, this is a moment to laugh’.

Original content
Translated from turkish by fenerbahCHE