This idea is for gobstoppers or any sweet made up of layers of hard candy which are successively dissolved to have letters and numbers printed (in edible colouring) between the layers. The letters would be clues to crack codes and code text which would have to be deciphered. This would start fairly easy, so a packet of six gobstoppers would have one which revealed the key to the code - "A=1" and the other five each with numbers corresponding to the letters A, G, I, C, M - type the word "MAGIC" into the website for your reward.

The later 'editions' of these sweets would be harder and harder, with multiple letters per gobstopper, more sophisticated codes, incomplete messages and, later, messages spread across many hundreds of packets of gobstoppers, gradually advancing the code-breaking and cryptographic skills of a generation of children and requiring co-operation from large numbers of children, perhaps through posting message or code fragments on the internet or running dictionary or letter-frequency attacks, before the message is cracked.
-- hippo, Feb 09 2006

and as you crack the code, your teeth slowly dissolve away, until on the final kernel there is insufficient grinding power to reveal the secret message which reads something like this: "Completing this task requires a full set of molars - for replacement dentures we at Acme Codes recommend Dr. Incisor Dental Services - and please stick with the croissants in future like this one" +
-- xenzag, Feb 09 2006


Maybe there are secret messages inside your teeth, too.
-- phundug, Feb 09 2006


Bone. Encouraging children to pull their candy out of their mouths is not a good idea.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Feb 09 2006


Aw, dang - just swallowed the rest of the message!
-- DrCurry, Feb 09 2006


They're hard to crack.

What happens if you suck trhough 2 layers?

Could the flavour change too... giving more meaning / encoded meaning? e.g. Strawberry 2 as opposed to Cherry 2. Earwax 4 as oppsed to toejam 4
-- Dub, Feb 09 2006


I love [Dub]'s idea: You could decipher the message just by sucking. Don't have to look.
-- phundug, Feb 10 2006



random, halfbakery