Prior to the 1970s, chewing gum was only available in a few incarnations, the vending machine gumball, the stick, and little hard individually-wrapped wads such as Bazooka and Dubble Bubble. But along with disco and CB radios, the 70s will also be remembered for another, and longer-lasting, contribution to the world – the advent of soft gum. And while Bubblicious wasn’t the first on the market, its full spectrum of delicious flavors has kept it one of the biggest selling soft gum products of all time. (click below to read more)
In 1975, Lifesavers candy unleashed a new form of soft gum, called Bubble Yum. So popular was this new product that Lifesavers actually had to cut back on their marketing because they simply couldn’t keep up with the demand. It was only natural that other manufacturers would want to get a piece of the soft gum pie, and in 1977, Cadbury Adams released their version – Bubblicious. Packaged almost identically to Bubble Yum, the competition made their mark by offering a substantially larger list of flavors. Over the years, in fact, there have been no less than 23 flavors of Bubblicious introduced, although 6 of them are no longer available. A sampling of some of their more popular varieties includes Cotton Candy, Watermelon Wave, Strawberry Splash, Gonzo Grape and Savage Sour Apple.
In the year that Bubblicious was introduced, fate lent a hand in the form of a vicious rumor started against Bubble Yum, one that convinced a segment of the population that those sugar granules that one could feel on their teeth and tongue were actually…spider eggs! Bubble Yum eventually recovered from this disinformation and is still a formidable competitor in the soft gum arena, but it still allowed Bubblicious to capture a stronger segment of the market at the time, a share that it retains to this day in the always-competitive gum wars.
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