As we get caught up in the day-to-day stresses and anxieties of our normal lives, it is easy to lose sight of 'the now'. It's much easier to look back on past eras and say, 'man, wasn't it nice when...' or look to the future and say, 'man, won't it be nice when...'. It's human nature. But every once in a while, we need to step back and recognize the world that we live in for what it is now. And let me tell you, we live in pretty good times.
I've mentioned it in previous posts, but the technological era that we currently live in is really pretty impressive. It may not be the electrical hover-crafts and hologram TV's that Isaac Asimov talked about in that Boy's Life article from 1989, but we do have video chat, portable hand-held computers, and 3d TV. But that's not the half of it. I am convinced that we are currently living in......
THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUM!!!1
When I was a kid (as I recall), there were a few gum options available to you: Juicy Fruit, Big Red, Extra, Big League Chew, Bazooka, etc. The big boys. They typically came in stick format and were nearly always packaged in that rectangular foil wrapper. You had a few flavor options; spearmint, peppermint, fruit, or...that standard 'gum' flavor that Bazooka and Dubble Bubble had. Life was fine. We didn't know any better....but my god, have things changed.
Take a look at Trident gum's product webpage: http://www.tridentgum.com/#/products/. I count 32 individual SKU's. 32 different types of gum! From Trident alone! And not only do you have a bunch of different flavors, you have five different styles:
- Trident Standard
- Trident Splash
- Trident White
- Trident Xtra Care
- Trident Layers
And look at the long-standing gum and candy magnate Wrigley: they offer no less than 11 brands of gum, including:
- Eclipse (which provides "incredibly fresh breath solutions for people whose on-the-go lifestyle demands a breath freshener that delivers.")
- 5 ("Stimulate your Senses")
- Big Red
- Doublemint
- Extra
- Freedent
- Hubba Bubba (its somehow very reassuring that Hubba Bubba is still being produced)
- Juicy Fruit
- Orbit (including regular Orbit, Orbit Mist, and Orbit White)
- Spearmint
- Winterfresh
Really take a look the next time you're in a gas station - the choice of gum in even the worst, cheapest Exxon station is mind-boggling. And that doesn't even touch how cool some of the new packaging is. The aforementioned "5" brand from Wrigley actually uses it's packaging as it's main selling point:
"5 is a groundbreaking sugar-free stick gum product. The mouth-freshening gum delivers long-lasting flavor and a unique experience. The sleek 5 envelope created the next great packaging enhancement for stick gum. Each distinctive envelope has an eye-catching design and holds 15 sticks. Now available in the new Prism flavor.(!)"
The gum that got me thinking about this post, however, is the newest offering from Trident, Trident Vitality. It was just released, and it comes in three styles:
- Vigorate, which is enhanced with Vitamin C
- Rejuve, which contains white tea
- Awaken, with a "dash" of ginseng
Check out this press release for a taste of how crazy the gum market has become. I actually picked up a pack of the 'Awaken' gum yesterday. The box alone had me sold - it is truly a piece of work. It's a full cardboard box with a recloseable lid - none of this wrap-around nonsense that Dentyne and Eclipse have been using - the damn thing is like Fort Knox. In a word, it's awesome. I mean, the gum still tastes like, well, gum, but the packaging - wow!
So the next time you open a cool new package of Dentyne Ice (Now FLAVOR Charged), take a moment to reflect how things once were and where we are today. We are no longer starved for flavor options. If we want a strawberry-orange layered sugarfree stick that whitens our teeth, it is readily available. We are truly living in a golden age.
