Bazooka Bubble Gum (History, Pictures & Commercials)

Bazooka gum has been around for a long time in the US and has been popular almost since it was first sold in the 1940s. You will get a great chewing gum experience with this gum and you will find out why people love traditional chewing gums so much.

Bazooka bubble gum has been a staple on the chewing gum market since shortly after WWII and people who love really long-lasting bubble gum still love this option. If you love chewing gum and have never tried this one out, you will need to make sure to take the time to get some Bazooka bubble gum and give it a go!

History

This gum was first made is a 1940s candy and was made in 1947. The gum was made by Bazooka Candy Brands which was a division of the Topps Company Inc. The gum was first made after WWII and was first sold in Brooklyn, New York. This gum was likely named after the rocket-style weapon that was used during the war by the US Army. This weapon was actually named after a musical instrument and this was the code name for the weapon that was used to protect the information about it.

Bazooka bubble gum has always been packaged in a red, white, and blue wrapper that has simple text on it and a simple design style. The gum sold for a penny when it first hit shelves, but in the early 50s, it started selling with Bazooka Joe comics as strips on the inside of the wrapper and the price was increased. Bazooka Joe was also added as a mascot and marketing ploy in 1953.

Bazooka Joe was featured in all of the comics inside the wrappers and you were sometimes offered a toy inside your wrapper. Some of the wrappers offered you the chance to have your fortune read as well. The comic strip is not part of the marketing plan today but you can still see examples of this comic strip wrapper style if you search online.

The original gum sold as Bazooka bubble gum was later used to make other flavors of gum for the company. They added Strawberry Shake, Cherry Berry, Grape Rage, and Watermelon Whirl later on. The gum is now also sold in a sugar free variety and a flavor blast variety that offers lingering taste for your enjoyment.

This gum is now sold in many countries and Bazooka Joe comics are featured in some of the local languages of the places where the gum is sold. Canadian versions of the gum show cartoons in both English and in French and in Israel the comics are written in Hebrew.

The gum is also sold in Spain under the name “Yo amo Bazooka”. This is the same gum, just sold under another brand name for use in Spain. The company announced in 2019 that it would make a Throwback Pack that preserves the older flavors and marketing styles of the gum.

Bazooka Joe

Bazooka Joe is usually better known than the gum that gave him life. He was the comic strip character who was featured in the comics on the inside of this gum variety for years. He is usually shown wearing a black eyepatch and he was drawn in a very unique way that draws attention to him even in these tiny comics.

He is still one of the most familiar comic strip characters of the 20^th century and you can count on this character to be recognized by people who bought Bazooka gum during the years that Bazooka Joe was featured inside the wrapper. Bazooka Joe was removed from the candy wrappers in 2012 when sales numbers for the product declined. Die-hard fans still miss the comics and have called for Bazooka Joe to make his return. He is a very popular comic strip character and instances of these comics inside gum wrappers that have survived are very collectible these days.

Bazooka Joe was often shown with a group of other rag-tag characters. He went on adventures with his younger brother and his friend Mort who always wore a turtleneck pulled up over his mouth. He also has a girlfriend named Jane and his chunky friend Hungry Herman made frequent appearances in the tiny strips. These comic strips were lighthearted and fun and many people remember getting a good chuckle out of them when they unwrapped a fresh piece of gum.

The company has suggested that they will replace Bazooka Joe with brainteasers, codes for videos and games, and more, but many fans are not sold on this idea. Bazooka Joe is such a staple of this brand that anything less than the original will likely not satisfy fans.

Bazooka Joe Comics

These are some examples of classic Bazooka Joe comics. Most of them feature him on adventures with his friends but you will also see him interacting with his girlfriend from time to time. There is something about these comics that reminds you of the Archie comics, and they are from the same era so this makes sense.

These are some really classic examples of these classic gum wrapper comics and you will probably be surprised at the complexity of them. They were really well-crafted for how small the available space is inside of a gum wrapper. This is part of why they are so popular today and there are 75 of these unique comics that you can choose to invest in as a collector if you wish.

From interactions between Joe and his friends on adventures and life’s lesson-style comics, you will enjoy a really great throwback comic experience when you delve into the many different comics that were added to the gum wrappers during this period. These are really fun and classic comics that still hold up to the test of time and are very popular with collectors today.

This comic shows an offer for sunglasses:

This one shows another offer but for a pocket knife:

Logo

Buy Online

You can also buy Bazooka Gum at Old Time Candy by clicking the image below.

Ingredients

This is a Kosher candy and vegan and you will find that the gum is made in much the same way as it always was.

• Sugar
• Gum Base
• Glucose syrup
• Natural & artificial flavors
• Glycerin
• Citric acid
• Titanium dioxide
• BHT
• Red 4 lake
• Red 40

This is a really simple recipe that delivers a great chewy gum that blows nice bubbles.

Nutrition

Serving Size:	1 piece (6g)	% Daily Value*
Amount Per Serving
Calories from Fat	0
Calories	20
Total Fat	0g	0%
Trans Fat	0g
Sodium	0mg
Total Carbohydrates	5g	2%
Sugars	4g
Protein	0g

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Bazooka Gum in Popular Culture

This gum has been mentioned many times in popular culture. There are references to it in How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, and also King of Queens. This is also a really popular gum in Israel, which surprises many people. The gum brand was first sold in Tel Aviv in 1960 and has been a hit ever since. It is sold here under a production license that is owned by Lieber Co.

Bazooka Joe comic strips are so popular in Israel that people will actually buy and sell them for reasonable money. This is one of the few locations that the comic strips still appear on some of the gum packages that are sold. If you want to get gum that has the traditional comics inside the wrapper, you will likely have to head to Israel or pick up some older tubs of the gum or the special gum variety that was rolled out in 2019.

Marketing Efforts

Like many older candy brands, this gum was marketed almost entirely off of word of mouth. The comics helped to make the gum more popular and many people were motivated to choose this gum over others just to get the comic that was inside the wrapper. You can still get buckets of the gum as well as smaller packs with the simple white background and red and blue and white logo on it. Most of the current wrappers for the gum are created with a white wrapper and the red and blue lettering that is across the wrapper is iconic, even today.

This is a gum that has stood the test of time due to being easy to chew and enjoyable as far as flavor. The company that makes it has not felt any reason to change something that is obviously working just fine. Despite brief forays into additional flavors, the candy company has always come back to the same tried-and-true flavor profile that sells reliably.

This is a traditional bubble gum that is still sold in a basic and common-sense way. Getting a pack of Bazooka bubble gum almost feels like going back in time and people who love simple and chewy gum that blows great bubbles will love this gum despite the fact that it is not marketed in any fancy way.

Pictures

Commercials

These are the 5 most recognized commercials for the gum in the US in recent years:

An ad from the 80s:

Another classic ad:

Another zany ad for the gum that is much newer: