A change of gears from the eater
The geek was contacted by someone at a marketing firm who works with Wrigley®, asking us to review some new chewing gum. This is certainly outside our normal blogging focus, but we figured, hey, why not? We get some some gum out of the deal, and it’s interesting to have a change of pace now and then. We just hope our budding readership doesn’t see it as selling out. 🙂 Since I’m “the eater”, it made sense for me to be the guinea pig and try out the gum.
The gum arrived last week, and upon opening the box it came in, the first thing that struck me (after getting past the surprise at the large amount of gum we now had available on which to chew) was the fancy packaging. There are three different flavors, all packed in sleek, black, 15-piece packages that look like something that would be handed out at some high-cover dance club. Each package has the number 5 featured prominently on it, highlighted with a subtle splash of color reflective of the flavor. The flavor names are all fancied up, too: “Rain” in green, “Cobalt” in blue, and “Flare” in red. Each piece of gum is wrapped in the Wrigley’s® style foil wrappers with zig-zag edges, but brightened up with color, and decorated with many “5”s. I’m not privy to the marketing spin, so I’m really not sure why “5”, but the whole effect does look pretty.
I was really hoping for some exotic gum flavors such as some unusual spice with the obvious focus that was put on the fancier-than-normal gum packaging, but I quickly found out that despite the names, the flavors are actually standard gum-fare. Rain is spearmint, Cobalt is peppermint/wintermint, and Flare is cinnamon. All are sugar-free. Despite my disappointment with the standard flavors, I did find the gum refreshing to chew and the flavors seemed to be quite a bit longer lasting than the average gum that I’m used to. Overall I would give this new gum my thumbs up.
It’s strange how marketing companies are now using bloggers. My children are growing up in a world totally different from the one I grew up in. 🙂
Now I’m very curious what the marketing plan is with the name 5? Oh. 5 calories? The flavor lasts for 5 hours? I’m very intrigued!