Big Red is a

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakf ...

flavored chewing gum introduced by the

William Wrigley Jr. Company The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, known as the Wrigley Company, is an American multinational chewing gum (Wrigley's gum) company, based in the Global Innovation Center (GIC) in Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois. Wrigley's is wholly owned by Mars, I ...

in 1975. Big Red was available in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

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 Australia in the early to the middle of the 1980s, but was discontinued there 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 Aspartame is an artificial non- saccharide sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is commonly used as a sugar substitute in foods and beverages. It is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide with the trade na ...

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 New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and sung by Ryan Devereaux. Many of the commercials depicted couples passionately kissing in a romantic setting for an unusually long time, always including one kisser who then must chase his departing ride. This commercial formula would later be parodied by a number of television shows, including ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

''. In August 2008, Wrigley teamed with popular singer songwriter Ne-Yo to update the classic jingle. In February 2010,

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

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).Verizon does Big Red, De Beers ad parodies
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In popular culture

Big Red was referenced in the 2006 movie '' Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'' in a mid-credits sequence where Ricky Bobby (played by Will Ferrell) Utters the phrase "I'm Ricky Bobby, if you don't chew Big Red, then fuck you." Big Red also features in the second episode of the

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Ma ...

streaming series, '' WandaVision''. In the episode taking place in the 1960s, Vision is given a piece of Big Red chewing gum. However, Big Red was not introduced until 1975.

References

External links

Wrigley's page on Big Red

Verizon Wireless commercial
{{Wrigley Wrigley Company brands Chewing gum Products introduced in 1975