Juicy Fruit is a brand of
chewing gumChewing gum is a type of gum traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene. For economical and quality reasons, many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle...
made by the
Wm. Wrigley Jr. CompanyThe William Wrigley Jr. Company is a company headquartered in the Wrigley Building in Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded on April 1, 1891, originally selling products such as soap and baking powder. In 1892, William Wrigley, Jr., the company's founder, began packaging...
, a U.S. company that since 2008 has been a subsidiary of the privately-held
Mars, IncorporatedMars, Incorporated is a worldwide manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products with US$30 billion in annual sales in 2010, and is ranked as the 5th largest privately held company in the United States by Forbes. Headquartered in McLean, unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia,...
. It was introduced in 1893, and in the 21st century the brand name is recognized by 99 percent of Americans, with total sales in 2002 of 153 million units. It is also known for being the first ever product bought using a barcode scanner.
Juicy Fruit is a brand of
chewing gumChewing gum is a type of gum traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene. For economical and quality reasons, many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle...
made by the
Wm. Wrigley Jr. CompanyThe William Wrigley Jr. Company is a company headquartered in the Wrigley Building in Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded on April 1, 1891, originally selling products such as soap and baking powder. In 1892, William Wrigley, Jr., the company's founder, began packaging...
, a U.S. company that since 2008 has been a subsidiary of the privately-held
Mars, IncorporatedMars, Incorporated is a worldwide manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products with US$30 billion in annual sales in 2010, and is ranked as the 5th largest privately held company in the United States by Forbes. Headquartered in McLean, unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia,...
. It was introduced in 1893, and in the 21st century the brand name is recognized by 99 percent of Americans, with total sales in 2002 of 153 million units. It is also known for being the first ever product bought using a barcode scanner.
Flavoring
Which
fruitIn broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
serves as the model for its flavor is kept vague in advertising, though in 2003
BBDOBBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
characterized it as a combination of
bananaBanana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
and
pineapplePineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
. According to two books in the
ImponderablesImponderables may refer to;* Imponderables * The Imponderables - Canadian sketch comedy troupe* Imponderable fluid...
series,
peachThe peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...
is one crucial flavor among many others.
It is likely that the chemical used for flavoring is
Isoamyl acetateIsoamyl acetate, also known as isopentyl acetate, is an organic compound that is the ester formed from isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid. It is a colorless liquid that is only slightly soluble in water, but very soluble in most organic solvents...
, a carboxylic ester.
Each stick of gum weighs 3 gram (0.105821886315336 oz) and contains 10 Calories (41,840 J).
Consumer demographics
The average age of the typical Juicy Fruit consumer is under 20, with 3- to 11-year-olds making up the heart of the business; those 20 years old and over account for 40 percent of the purchases.
Sean PaytonPatrick Sean Payton is the current head coach of the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. Payton was a quarterback at Naperville Central High School and Eastern Illinois University and played professionally in 1987 and 1988...
, head coach of the
New Orleans SaintsThe New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
of the NFL is well known for requesting a Juicy Fruit in the middle of games.
New flavors
Juicy Fruit has released a "Sweet Flavors" Kiwi-Strawberry flavor. Also recently another new flavor called "Juicy Secret".
History
When the brand first entered the market, it was packaged simply, with a plain wrapper and "JUICY FRUIT" in red, thin block letters In 1914, Wrigley changed it to thin vertical white and green stripes with "Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum" centered in a stylized
Maltese CrossThe Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta and through them came to be identified with the Mediterranean island of Malta and is one of the National symbols of Malta...
emblemAn emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
with a black background.
Juicy Fruit was taken off of the civilian market temporarily during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
because of ingredient shortages and the demand for the gum to be included in
C-rationThe C-Ration, or Type C ration, was an individual canned, pre-cooked, or prepared wet ration intended to be issued to U.S. military land forces when fresh food or packaged unprepared food prepared in mess halls or field kitchens was impractical or not available, and when a survival ration was...
s. When the gum was re-introduced to the general public after World War II ended, the striped packaging was replaced by one with a bright yellow background and "Juicy Fruit" bracketed between two stylized chevrons, the latter a motif meant to echo the "Wrigley arrow" element used for
Wrigley's SpearmintWrigley's Spearmint is a brand of Wrigley's chewing gum. Wrigley's launched the brand in 1893 and markets the gum as its classic brand, although the company's brand Juicy Fruit has been on the market slightly longer...
since 1893. The bright yellow background remained into the 21st century, with variations since 2002 turning the arrowhead-like chevrons into the corners of an elongated smile under the brand name. Juicy Fruit is still widely popular today.
In 2003 in the United States, Wrigley's replaced some of the sugar in Juicy Fruit with two artificial sweeteners,
aspartameAspartame is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in some foods and beverages. In the European Union, it is codified as E951. Aspartame is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide. It was first sold under the brand name NutraSweet; since 2009 it...
and
Ace KAcesulfame potassium is a calorie-free artificial sweetener, also known as Acesulfame K or Ace K , and marketed under the trade names Sunett and Sweet One. In the European Union, it is known under the E number E950...
. In 2009, Wrigley's started selling a sugar-free version of Juicy Fruit.
Television commercial
The gum achieved brief notoriety in the early 2000s when one of their commercials was censored by the
FCCThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
. The ad is a parody of a daytime children's show in which an overly cheerful host suddenly attacks her co-star, who is wearing a
whaleWhale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
costume, for taking a stick of Juicy Fruit gum from her pocket while the two are singing a song about, ironically, sharing. A fight breaks out backstage and the commercial goes to a test pattern (implying the "network" had censored this unplanned incident), only to return to show the host physically assaulting the whale while the song continues in the background. The ad was criticized for airing during time slots when the sort of child-oriented shows it parodied were playing, and ostensibly legitimizing violence to young children. The ad was not removed from the air, but its play was limited to late-night television. The ad was eventually removed altogether.
In 2008, Wrigley's released a new Juicy Fruit commercial featuring
Julianne HoughJulianne Alexandra Hough is an American professional ballroom dancer, country music singer and actress. She is most widely known for being a two-time champion of ABC's Dancing with the Stars. She earned a Creative Arts Primetime Emmy nomination in 2007 for choreography...
singing the original Juicy fruit song with the new slim pack.
External links