Big Red (gum) facts for kids
 |
|
| Type | Chewing gum |
|---|---|
| Owner | Mars Wrigley division of Mars, Incorporated |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1975 |
| Tagline | "Long lasting fresh breath" |
Big Red is a cinnamon flavored chewing gum introduced by the William Wrigley Jr. Company in 1975. Big Red was available in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the mid to end of the 1990s, but is no longer available there. It is a popular souvenir for visitors to the United States from Ireland, or the United Kingdom.
Big Red was also released in the early to the middle of the 1980s in Australia, but was discontinued in the end of the 1980s.
It was re released in 2004, and again at the end of 2007. It is also available in Mexico, Luxembourg, Belgium, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, New Zealand, and parts of Sweden; the gum sold in Germany, Norway and Poland is not red but white. It is meant to be hot in flavor. Despite it not being a sugarless gum, in 2003 in the United States, Wrigley's replaced some of the sugar with aspartame and Ace K, both artificial sweeteners.
The "Big Red" song
Like its sister product, Juicy Fruit, Big Red had its own commercial jingle, which was used from 1977 to 1998. The song was composed by Peter Cofield from Sunday Productions in New York City, and sung by Ryan Devereaux.
In August 2008, Wrigley teamed with popular singer songwriter Ne-Yo to update the classic jingle. In February 2010, Verizon Wireless repurposed the classic jingle for a television campaign featuring the company's industry nickname, "Big Red" (a reference to the colour of the company's logo).
