Stressed Out? Get Chewing: Can A Wellness Rebrand Make Americans Buy Gum Again?

The stuff has been around, in some form, for millennia. But with sales in a long decline, marketers are taking things full circle

When was the last time you saw someone chewing gum? 1998, maybe? 2007? Chances are, it probably wasn’t recently. Like high heels and affordable housing, chewing gum appears to be going extinct.

Gum’s popularity has been declining globally for a while now thanks to increased competition from products like breath mints and mobile phones distracting us from impulse purchases while shopping. The pandemic, however, drastically accelerated gum’s decline: sales dropped by nearly a third in the US in 2020, according to the market research firm Circana. No prizes for guessing why: you don’t need minty fresh breath for Zoom calls.