World in a dish Bursting the bubble: how gum lost its cool

F or decades, chewing gum was a symbol of rebellion, synonymous with youthful angst, bestowing the chewer with an aura of boldness, bravado and sex appeal. Rockstars masticated on stage. Characters in teen movies chewed with attitude: high-schoolers in “The Breakfast Club” (1985) popped gum with defiance; in “Grease” (1978) Frenchy blows big pink balloons (the cast reportedly got through 100,000 pieces of gum on set).

Now the bubble has burst. Gum has had a bad pandemic: with mouths cloistered by masks, dates delayed and clubbing cancelled, sales of gum fell by 14% worldwide in 2020 over the previous year. Yet sales had been in decline even before covid struck. Why has gum come unstuck?

Chewing for chewing’s sake has a long history. Ancient Greeks munched bark. For centuries the Mayans and Aztecs chewed chicle, a resin from the Mexican sapodilla tree that arrived in New York in the 19th century. It was the Americans who found a way to sell the sticky stuff. Local gum entrepreneurs began to add different flavours, using chicle as a base. In the 1950s manufacturers swapped chicle for synthetic rubber and plastic, which were cheaper. They also introduced sugar-free gum.

Few products are as pointless as chewing gum, so marketers had to get creative. As William Wrigley junior, founder of the eponymous brand, pointed out: “Anyone can make gum. Selling it is the problem.”

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