Figure skating champ ruins gum (Bubble Gum Weekend)

I'm a guy who cries when perfectly good gum is wasted.

Luckily, no perfectly good gum was harmed in the filming of this ad. Rather, it was Trident.

I'd hate to profile Trident here 2 weeks in a row, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Trident, as you may know, was the first sugarless gum. It contains an artificial sweetener known to induce heavy diarrhea.

For some years, champion figure skater Peggy Fleming was employed as a spokeswoman for Trident. I don't think she ever bubbled in the commercials, however.

In this 1981 ad, Fleming ruins a pack of Trident by throwing it in a swimming pool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF_fX8ELKHk

The kids in the ad chase down a waterlogged pack of Trident!

This commersh has a feature reminiscent of the "Free credit for spilled drinks" line in the Big Boy ad of the same era. Near the end of the Trident ad, text appeared at the top of the screen saying, "If not fresh, return unused portion to Warner-Lambert Co. for replacement."

I bet this stopped when Warner-Lambert got tired of receiving chewed wads of gum in the mail. Or perhaps not, because it probably cost more to mail gum than to buy a fresh pack at the store.