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Remember the slogan “Double your pleasure, double your fun”?
If you chew gum, then you might recognize the slogan that was used by the Wrigley company since 1914, which is a play on the word “double” in one of their products name, Doublemint. Other gum producing companies have used catchy slogans and phrases over the years to promote their products, as well. Remember “Cleans your teeth while cleaning your breath”? (Dentyne) or “Blow Your Own Bubble”? (Bubble Yum).
As with most advertising, these slogans were designed to entice people to buy and chew gum. Those advertising campaigns produce impressive results with the industry estimated to be worth approximately $19 billion dollars. There are thousands of brands and flavors of chewing gum available in the world, many found and produced here in the United States.
With the thousands of people who chew gum every day, most chew each piece for only thirty minutes.
These pieces are then thrown away…or left behind in Seattle.
Seattle?
My son and I were spending the night in Seattle before catching a flight to Hong Kong the next day. Although we were just excited to be in Seattle, we had arrived a bit earlier in the day than we expected and decided to hop on the Link light rail. Wanting to “double our pleasure”, we headed to the city center to see some sights and make the most of the beautiful sunny afternoon.
Of course, heading to the Pike Place Market was a must and we admired the many unique things for sale and watched the famous fish slingers toss the slippery, aquatic vertebrates from one to the other. These are the things that typical tourists, like us, just have to do. I had, however, uncovered something very fascinating located in an alleyway underneath the market.
The Market Theater Gum Wall.
In Post Alley, the Market Theater Gum Wall is a local landmark where visitors go to see…and leave behind…used gum.
The tradition began around 1993 when patrons of Unexpected Productions’ Seattle Theatresports began to stick gum to the wall and placed coins in the gum blobs near the box office for the Market Theater. Although workers removed the gum initially, they eventually gave up after market officials deemed the wall a tourist attraction in 1999.
A very germy affair, the entire alleyway is covered in colorful blobs of gum, some dripping from window sills and some fashioned into works of art and messages. Parts of the wall are covered with several inches of the resin that rise as high as fifty feet above the alleyway (very dedicated chewers).
The attraction draws thousands of tourists every year and has been featured in a scene for the movie, Love Happens (2009), starring Jennifer Aniston. The venue is also popular with photographers for modeling shoots as well as wedding shoots.
Go figure…
Seattle…shopping, fish and gum…I don’t know if we doubled our pleasure, but it sure was fun!
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Market Theater Gum Wall
- Address: 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98101
- Hours: 24 hours
- Admission: free
- Getting There: If facing the Pike Public Market sign, go downstairs and make a left into Post Alley.