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Cultural mind-games

Written by hootenannie on July 10th, 2007
Leave it to Apple. First, with the introduction of the iPod and those little earbuds, they made white the new black. Then, in the past year or two, they reclaimed the pitch-color and made black the new white, and even charged extra for the black Macbook. Their mind-games worked on me – I own an incredibly sexy black Macbook and black iPod (80GB, mind you – go big or go home, even if I only use 7% of its storage space).

Gum companies (yes, my dear readers, gum companies) are jumping on the same bandwagon: the wagon of reinventing and reclaiming. Remember when gum came in long, thin strips, wrapped in shiny paper, and pressed one piece next to the other in a big pack? Then, along came Trident. They packaged their gum in short, fat pieces, wrapped in plain, matted paper. Pretty soon, every pack of gum came packaged like this, although their cases became more advanced (Orbit, anyone?). This has been the norm for awhile now.

But. BUT. Yesterday at Target, I came across something that even I, with my alert, astute frame of mind, could not resist. A brand-spanking new brand of gum called Wrigley’s 5, 15 pieces of long, thin gum strips bundled in the sleekest black box. Three different flavors – Flare! Rain! Cobalt! With names like those, how could I resist?

Wrigley’s 5 has reclaimed the gum form of yore, and marketed it in a little cardboard pouch that closes (and stays closed) with a satisfactory tab-into-slit fastener. After a little research, I found out that they are promoting primarily to teens and “club goers”; that would explain the glow-in-the-dark 5. Their slogan? “5 is the new black.” I don’t really know what that means, but Lord have mercy, I am a believer.

At least, I was a believer, until I unwrapped the first piece and put it in my mouth, and… it tastes like… gum. That’s all. Bummer.

Everything always comes full circle. Black? White? Gum? But I swear – when shoulder pads make their triumphant comeback, I’m out.

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6 Comments so far ↓

  1. Jul
    10
    1:19
    PM
    david

    First, I can’t believe that someone else has an unnecessary aversions to shoulder pads. I’m scared they’ll come back, even though I’m pretty sure they can’t (too ugly).

    Second, I have to say that those gum flavors sound B-A-D. It sounds like the stole the name from Axe scents or something. Who would want to chew Flare?

  2. Jul
    10
    1:47
    PM
    Christina

    Oh my gosh, when are we going to stop reading each other’s minds? I haven’t blogged in about a month (because loooord-a-mercy the bar exam sucks), but I was almost about to put a post about gum! Not the same gum, but trendy, gimmicky gum nonetheless. So wierd. Back to studying – and hopefully one day the blogging!

  3. Jul
    10
    1:53
    PM
    Lyla

    Hey! What do you have against shoulder pads? Oh, wait, everything I imagine.

  4. Jul
    11
    12:30
    AM
    J.P. Ensor

    I’ve totally been chewing this gum since I got to Phoenix! I got it at Target also! It’s like we’ve been living parallel lives that are nothing alike. But the gum is good.

  5. Jul
    11
    12:42
    PM
    ValleyGrl

    I’m going to have to run out and buy some so that I can see what “Rain” tastes like-lol!

  6. Apr
    13
    6:18
    PM
    Sally

    Funny! Yeah, we’re totally being taken for a ride on the gum wagon. Damn them and their plan to get us to pay 75 cents more than when we were kids.

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