A chewing gum a day …

Chick Chick Chiclets
Chick Chick Chiclets…

Remember the jingle that you heard years back? Gum chewing was considered as being yuppie and cool those days, and the marketing too happily positioned the product that way.

But today’s younger generation uses their head more and was not interested in doing things, just to be tagged as cool. They are more conscious about their health than ever. They drink diet coke, eat calorie free Sub-Way Subs, visits gym regularly and even learn to party with Appy Fizz. Smart manufacturers like Wrigley and Perfetti caught the trend early on to replace their ‘cool’ Gum products with the healing ones. Sugar free chewing gums like Orbit and Happydent Protex that will help prevent tooth decay and whiten the teeth are the flavor of the season now.

Creative Ads by McCann-Erickson for HappyDent-White, where white teeth (after eating chewing gum) being used for lighting streets and as flash for taking photographs, has left an indelible impression in the people’s mind about the product and it’s benefits. The other best thing the companies did was in getting the product placement right. You can see these chewing gums available near the billing counters in most stores, where the probability of getting the consumer’s attention and convert that into a sale is more. Also the availability of these chewing gums in medical stores increases the perception of the product being healthy and with medicinal qualities.

Well, this topic made me think back to my school days. I’ve got interest in the chewing gums by watching great cricket players like David Boon, Vivian Richards and others, and started to use it while batting, believing that gum chewing can help in facing the fast bowlers without any fear. It worked well for me, may be by relaxing my mind or the subconscious mind pushing me to throw the bat around fearlessly like Sir Richards. (Well, all I’m talking about here is the street cricket we’ve played and not any Ranji Trophy match). And then how can I forgot the fights to be the leading run scorer, not in playing cricket, but in collecting the scores available with the Big Fun, bubble gum. Some boys even sold the scores, more than the price of bubble gum, it was great fun indeed collecting the runs patiently for months.

Chewing gum industry can take this cue from history to focus more on the PR side to push their sales. Bollywood heroes can be made to use the chewing gum in the films, which will be helpful in creating the Gum culture. As Wrigley’s Orbit and Perfetti’s HappyDent are fighting out to increase their market share, may be it is the dentist who will suffer in the end. Who knows, someone may introduce this new saying in their ad – “A chewing gum a day keeps the dentist away”.

Tough life ahead for you, dentists…