It's old...It's Orbit... (Bubble Gum Weekend)

It's bad enough when gum manufacturers peddle varieties that are hamstrung with artificial sweeteners to adults.

We've all seen those ads. They always featured frumpy grownups talking about how they never gave up bubble gum - just the sugar!

But in 1983, Orbit gum - which according to Wikipedia was and is a Wrigley's product - decided to broadcast ads like these selling these frankensweeteners to children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7JiPEt00Pk

It's no wonder Orbit took an extended hiatus from the American market for years afterward. With the gum industry saturated with so many brands of sugarless gum that nobody wanted, one of them was bound to be discontinued. Orbit didn't appear in the U.S. from the mid-'80s or so until 2001.

It's suitable that this commercial featured a robot - because folks had to be programmed to think sugarless gum is great enough to sell as much as it does.

But people in the commersh bubbled. The robot, however, did not.

A bit of history about Orbit: This brand wasn't originally sugarless, but it was designed as a deliberately inferior brand during World War II, when Wrigley's had a hard time finding all the ingredients they needed for their main brands. Orbit was branded separately from Wrigley's classic brands, because Orbit didn't meet high enough standards for Wrigley's to even want their name on it.