Yes, it’s still a song about gum, paid for by gum
Wrigley Doublemint Edit 2008, originally uploaded by JWSherman.
An editorial in last week’s The Reflector (which is the online student newspaper of Mississippi State University) weighed in on something AndrewsGumWorld has mused on before, and that’s Chris Brown’s song (and then commercial) “Forever,” which was first a hit song, and then revealed to be a song (among a few others) commissioned by Wrigley to further its brands via music by popular artists.
The editorial was written by Robert Scribner, a graduate student at that university, and while he likes the song and Doublemint gum, he’s a bit bothered by the intersection of the worlds of chewing gum advertising and music, and makes this interesting point near the end of his editorial, “Ad placements deceive customers”:
But is it really necessary to plant slogans subliminally into popular music? I have a degree in marketing, and even I wouldn’t stoop that low. It’s just not what music is all about, and it’s not what chewing gum is all about either. Both of these fine industries should be above deceiving their customers.