No, I used to chew it a lot when I was a kid and never was in a Toys R Us until at least 20 years later after my daughter was born. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a commercial for it at all. I just bought it in the drugstore.
I never associated the gum with the toy store, but then I don’t recall the toy store when I was a kid back in the olden days. My mom was very *very *anti-gum, especially sugary sweet gums (double mint was OK on occasion) so I never had Fruit Stripe as a kid. I did buy it once as a young adult and was dismayed to find that not only did it lose its flavor fast, but if chewed hard enough, it completely disintegrated! Granted, the particular incident was a very stressful one and I was apparently channeling my anxiety to my gum… but all at once, it got weirdly gritty, and then it was gone. ick.
If I chew now, it’s a mint gum.
And Big League Chew was brought to market by Jim Bouton, the former Yankees pitcher who authored “Ball Four.”
When I was a kid growing up in the 70s the commercial featured kids saying:
“You can’t tickle my tongue, Zebra!”