Advertisement

firehouse pizza banner

Andy Sullivan: Against the Grain

Here’s something to chew on: I think I was listening to SiriusXM when the subject of chewing gum came up.  Maybe it was an anniversary of something.  Whatever the reason for the mention, it got me thinking of chewing gums of the past. 

The American Indians chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees.  The New England settlers picked up this practice, and in 1848, John B. Curtis developed and sold the first commercial chewing gum called the State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.  Bubble gum was invented in the 1920’s by Walter Diemer.  In Philadelphia when he began testing recipes for a gum base, the part that makes gum chewy, in his spare time in 1928.  He unwittingly created the first batch of bubble gum, making it pink because that was the only shade of food coloring on hand. 

Modern chewing gum was first developed in the 1860’s when chicle was brought from Mexico by the former President, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, to New York, where he gave it to Thomas Adams for use as a rubber substitute.  (www.Google.com)

Adams New York Chewing Gum was the first chewing gum.  In 1869, Thomas Adams simply added flavor to the chicle and it became the first marketed chewing gum called Adams New York Chewing Gum.

In the 20th century, chewing gum made William Wrigley Jr. one of the wealthiest men in America.  Wrigley started out as a soap salesman in his native Philadelphia.  After moving to Chicago in 1891, he began offering store owners incentive to stock his products, such as free cans of baking powder with every order.  When the baking powder proved a bigger hit than the soap, Wrigley sold that instead and added in free packs of chewing gum as a promotion. 

In 1893, he launched two new gum brands-Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Spearmint.  Because the chewing gum field had grown crowded with competitors, Wrigley decided he’d make his products stand out by spending heavily on advertising and direct marketing.  In 1915, the Wrigley company kicked off a campaign in which it sent free samples of its gum to millions of Americans listed in phonebooks.  (www.history.com)

William Wrigley introduced Big Red, a cinnamon-flavored chewing gum-in 1975.  Big Red was available in the U.K. from 1995-1999 but is no longer there.  Big Red wasre-released in 2004 and again at the end of 2007. 

Like its sister product Juicy Fruit, Big Red had its own commercial jingle, which was used from 1977-1998.  The song was composed by Peter Cofield from Sunday Productions in New York City Many of the commercials depicted couples passionately kissing causing one to miss their departing ride.  The commercial formula would be parodied by many, including Saturday Night Live in August 2008.  R&B star Ne-Yo actually sang the jingle for one of their commercials in the late ‘00’s.  (www.wikipedia.com)

Wrigley had some competition, if you want to call it that.  Cinn-A-Burst/Mint-A-Burst/Fruit-A-Burst was from the Warner/Lambert company(Cadbury).  Mint-A-Burst was rolled out first to go head-to-head with Spearmint.  The downfall of the “Burst” franchise was Fruit-A-Burst.  Everyone knows that when aduts start doing something, it loses its coolness with kids. (www.gbnfgroceris.bogspot.com)   I liked Cinn-A-Burst and I was a kid. 

Have I made you miss these chewing gums like I do?  I could go for some Cinn-A-Burst right now/  I was always of the opinion that it kept its flavor longer than Big Red, which is why I liked it better.  What was your favorite chewing gum?

Tags: 


Bookmark and Share

Advertisements