In an aside on a column about whether toothpaste contains sugar, Cecil wrote:
I know this is an old article from 1978, but, WTF? What a bomb to drop with no explanation.
The short Wikipedia article on Dentyne says
I suppose the idea that a sugary gum could “prevent decay” could be considered a fraud. I vaguely remember marketing campaigns by Dentyne, along the lines of, “If you don’t have time to brush your teeth, chew Dentyne instead.” I’m sure 4 out of 5 dentists would disagree.
I guess you have to remember the commercials.
Dentyne was touted as something to chew after eating if you couldnt brush your teeth, based on a study that found that saliva rinsed away both the detritus left from eating, and the microbial growth that causes decay. Unfortunately, chewing sugar may seem to be sort of throwing wood chips on a fire to put it out.
Let me clarify my confusion. I had the impression that Dentyne is a sugarless gum. Is there any variety of Dentyne that contains sugar? If not, when was sugarless Dentyne introduced? The official history on the company web site doesn’t discuss sugar at all.
I always figured it was the gumminess of the product that would pick up food particles, although I can see how increased saliva would help too. I did think the product was “Dentyne Sugarless Gum”. Besides, if it has sugar, what would be its advantage over any other brand of gum?
I remember hearing a story about someone who was denying the influence of advertising, remarking that he did not use Dentyne because of its advertising, but because he just did not have time to brush after every meal. The funny part was that that was their advertising slogan…Dentyne, when you don’t have time to brush after every meal!
I believe Dentyne Classic has, and always has had, sugar. Here’s a page I found with the ingredient list. The fact that you thought it was sugarless may be part of the “brazen fraud.”
I don’t know when sugarless Dentyne was introduced, but it must have been sometime after 1964, as this was when sugarless Trident, the first sugarless gum, was introduced (according to Wikipedia).
Dentyne was not originally sugarless. However, when I went to their website (which allows you only three minutes to peruse) all of the gums listed had an asterisk that said “artificially flavored sugarless gum”. They may have lost market share once people realized that Dentyne isn’t sugarless.
It could be that the unlisted flavors (the classic ones) do still contain sugar. Thudlow Boink certainly found some that contains sugar for sale.
The same as the advantage to a breakfast cereal that doesn’t contain asbestos.
What the HELL is the purpose of a three minute limit on their website? Are they afraid someone is going to find out what’s in their gum?
I notice that if you go the flavor page, it doesn’t count against your three minutes, but I can’t even find ingredients. I’m not even sure how I found the flavor page. And I wasn’t able to view more than one flavor.
I was thinking it can’t possibly be true. But I went and looked, and sure enough, just as you guys said, you get kicked off the site after three minutes. They give you a little clock. You can customize its look and everything!
In the interest of Science, I let the time run out to see exactly what happens, and now I see the gag. The theme of their ads is that Dentyne has something to do with helping you socialize. But you can’t socialize while looking at a webpage. So they don’t let you look too long. That’s the joke.
Also, when it kicks you off, it mentions the “face time contest” which I didn’t bother to look at information about during the three minutes. After eight hours I can come back for another three minutes and sign up for the “face time contest” it says. And you know what–I’m vaguely curious about what that contest is about. And that came about only because the site kicked me off.
And in the next eight hours I’m guessing I’m going to mention the website to a few people because it’s so odd and kind of funny that it would kick you off like that.
So all in all, I think it works!
Advertising is weird these days!
Also, the company managed to make me sit on their website for an entire three minutes. I’da never looked at a gum website for three minutes before.
I think that the 3 minutes has to do with their advertising. Chewing Dentyne allows you to freshen your breath in 3 minutes or some such nonsense. But I am not sure because that website is a piece of crap.
As a long-time chewer of Dentyne, I want to mention that none of the stuff on that page is the “real” Dentyne, which is a sugared cinnamon gum that comes in a pack of oddly-shaped individually-paper-wrapped sticks. It’s good stuff (but obviously not for your teeth). Aspartame makes me nauseated, so I’m something of a connoisseur of the few remaining brands of chewing gum with sugar. 
The “new” Dentyne stuff is just another generic sugarfree gum sold in little blister packs. Blech.