The Fascinating Story of Juicy Fruit Gum
The unassuming product has had an odd history — including a key role in the evolution of modern retailing.
Yesterday I wrote about how I recently rediscovered an old Juicy Fruit gum wrapper that I thought I’d lost about 20 years ago. The wrapper was originally sent to me back in 1996 by friends who thought I’d be interested in the odd slogan printed on the packaging: “The Gum With the Fascinating Artificial Flavor.”
As it turns out, that slogan is just one small part of a brand history that’s loaded with surprising details. For example:
1. Juicy Fruit was Wrigley’s first commercial gum.
When William Wrigley Jr. went into the gum biz (he had previously sold soap and baking soda), Juicy Fruit was his first commercial product, launching in 1893. Wrigley’s Spearmint, which has become much more iconic in the marketplace, debuted later that same year. Doublemint followed more than two decades later, in 1914.
2. Juicy Fruit’s key marketing term is “fascinating.”
As near as I can figure, the earliest use of “fascinating” in Juicy Fruit marketing came around 1930, when the phrase “Fascinating Flavor” began appearing on the gum’s packaging. You can see it on the underside of the Juicy Fruit pack shown in this ad:
The “Fascinating Flavor” phrase was soon amended to become “Has a Fascinating Flavor” (emphasis mine), as seen in this 1931 ad:
By the 1940s, this slogan had morphed into “A Fascinating Artificial Flavor” (emphasis mine). This seems bizarre by contemporary standards, but the advent of synthetic flavorings probably seemed modern and science-y at the time. Here’s how it looked on an individually wrapped stick of Juicy Fruit: