Wrigley Company

The William Wrigley Jr. Company is an American company headquartered in the GIC (Global Innovation Center) in Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded on April 1, 1891, originally selling products such as soap and baking powder. In 1892, William Wrigley, Jr., the company's founder, began packaging chewing gum with each can of baking powder. The chewing gum eventually became more popular than the baking powder and Wrigley's reoriented the company to produce the gum. Today, after 120+ years since the company was founded it is by far the largest manufacturer and marketer of chewing gum in the world.

The company currently sells its products in more than 180 countries and districts and maintains 140 factories in various countries and districts, including the United States, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Czech Republic, Germany, South Africa, Argentina, Tanzania, Tunisia, Somalia, North Korea (the only US enterprise there), France, Kenya, China, India, Taiwan, Poland, and Russia.

Wrigley's Spearmint

Wrigley's Spearmint is a brand of Wrigley's chewing gum. Wrigley's launched the brand in 1893 and markets the gum as its classic brand, although the company's brand Juicy Fruit has been on the market slightly longer. As the name implies the gum is flavored with the spearmint plant.

Gum was originally marketed by being given away free, with the purchase of Baking Soda. It became so popular that it was then eventually sold separately as a desired commodity.

During World War II, company president Philip Wrigley led an unusual move to support U.S. troops and protect the reputation of the company's brands. Because of wartime rationing, Wrigley could not make enough top-quality gum for everyone. So rather than compromise the high quality that people expected, the company took Wrigley's Spearmint, Doublemint® and Juicy Fruit off the civilian market and dedicated the entire output of these brands to the U.S. Armed Forces. Wrigley's Spearmint was reintroduced in 1946.

In a 2004 advertising campaign, it was relaunched in the US and UK with the slogan "even better, longer lasting".

Chewing gum

Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance designed for chewing but not swallowing. Humans have used chewing gum in some form for at least 100,000 years. Modern chewing gum is made from butadiene-based synthetic rubber. Most chewing gums are considered polymers.

History

Chewing gum in many forms has existed since the Neolithic period. 5,000-year-old chewing gum made from birch bark tar, with tooth imprints, has been found in Kierikki, Yli-Ii, Finland. The tar from which the gums were made is believed to have antiseptic properties and other medicinal benefits. The ancient Aztecs used chicle, a natural tree gum, as a base for making a gum-like substance and to stick objects together in everyday use. Forms of chewing gums were also chewed in Ancient Greece. The Ancient Greeks chewed mastic gum, made from the resin of the mastic tree. Many other cultures have chewed gum-like substances made from plants, grasses, and resins.

The American Indians chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees. The New England settlers picked up this practice, and in 1848, John B. Curtis developed and sold the first commercial chewing gum called The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum. Around 1850 a gum made from paraffin wax was developed and soon exceeded the spruce gum in popularity. William Semple filed an early patent on chewing gum, patent number 98,304, on December 28, 1869.

Lucky Penny

"Lucky Penny" is the 15th episode in the second season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 37th overall. It originally aired on February 12, 2007.

Plot

Ted and Robin are running through the airport, trying to catch a plane to Chicago, where Ted has an interview with a large architecture firm for the job of running the company's New York branch. As they reach their gate, the attendant tells them they cannot get on the flight. They explain that Ted had to attend a court date that morning for jumping a subway turnstile, and she asks them to wait while she talks with the flight. While they wait, Robin suggests that their lateness was in fact Barney's fault.

The show then flashbacks a few months to when Marshall had just broken his toe. He is especially disappointed, as he had been training hard to run the New York City Marathon. Barney complains about his moaning, and states that running a marathon is easy, even without training. Marshall then bets Barney he cannot complete the marathon, and Barney—who has a gambling addiction—accepts the wager.