TV & Gum Are Awesome

STRIDE WHITEMINT INSPIRED BY SHAUN WHITE

When I picked up the new Shaun White-branded WHITEMINT Stride gum at Target last weekend, I thought about the same thing I did when I saw his cameo in Friends with Benefits………. WHYYYYY? I like Shaun, and I think he’s GREAT (and that haiiiiir!), but Olympians tend only to shine around, you know, the Olympics and I’m wondering now if Shaun is angling toward SUPERSTARDOM or something*…

(Allow me to redirect for one second… The cameo in FWB I gave the benefit of the doubt because I thought, “Ehhhh, movies are made a long time ago when maybe the timeliness of a Shaun White cameo made more sense!” AND because the movie had one wayyyyyy-more-dated reference that deserved a much bigger head-scratch: THE CURSING OF THE KATHERINE HEIGL POSTER… for a movie released in July of 2009. SERIOUSLY, WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT???? When I saw that in the previews I decided maybe the movie was going back in time a couple of years for the sake of at some point hitting PRESENT DAY… but nooooo. Katherine Heigl movie posters apparently just hang around forever on the streets of New York, just chillin’. Guess what, movie makers? Computers can do alllll kinds of wacky, technological things these days to fix little problems like this. You should know that, your movie has ALL KINDS OF THAT COMPUTER-Y STUFF. Timeline query: The Ugly Truth was released in July 2009… the iPad—upon which Jamie and Dylan swear their unemotional bond—became available in April 2010. WHEN THE HELL WAS THIS MOVIE MADE???).

If I might be allowed to persuade you in one direction or another, dear Shaun… YOUR GUM RULES (and your acting, well… ehhhh). I sincerely and totally love the whitemint flavor. It’s more wintergreen than spearmint, but really the flavor is a minty combo that reminds me of the Icebreakers gum line (the flavor in the blue pack!). It’s soooo refreshing and so light and it’s a nice spin on regular mint flavors.

The packaging is a little strange, with White’s face on the front of the pack and really strange cartoon sketches inside wherein he is playing cards with a ram (is that a reference to the Stride Spark commercials? I’m a little confused), but the wrappers on the gum are really sharp and sparkly and coooool.

This pack is going straight into my normal (non-testing) gum-chewing rotation!

Final thought: *Seriously, though, doesn’t it feel like this gum could have been HUGE around the time of the 2010 Olympics? Or in a couple more years at the 2014 games? I know that Shaun is sponsored by Stride Gum and I understanddddd getting the most out of such a partnership but… timing is everything, no?