I bought some gum today, and noticed something a little odd on the package:
In our bang zoom culture of bigger! and better! and now-with-20%-more-pants!, it’s noteworthy to see Trident promoting their gum as ‘less intense”.
I do take issue with their copy-writing. How many people discriminate between “more flavour” and “less intensity”. I’m no food expert, but I associate the notion of flavour with intensity. That is, if something is more flavourful, it’s also more intense. Is that notion incorrect?
Likewise, there’s a little symbol (like an asterisk, but it’s a cross–what’s the official name of that superscript marker?) indicating that there are further details elsewhere on the package. When you turn the package over, the explanation reads “More flavour and less intense than previous Trident Spearmint”. That seems kind of redundant, no?
In any case, I’d be curious to see the market research that drove Trident’s decision to get off the bigger, better treadmill.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
That mark is called a dagger — if there are two cross-lines, it’s a double dagger.
See Dagger (typography) on Wikipedia.
Some of the gums on the market now are so “intense” they make me shudder.
That blurb would definitely appeal to me.
You probably haven’t had Dentyne Ice gum in the black package. Half the people I give it to end up spitting it out almost immediately, even after I warn them that it’ll burn for 30 seconds. Once you get past the burning, it’s pretty tasty, so I can see the benefit of treating taste and intensity as separate things.
As for the redundancy, I’m sure that’s just a legal requirement in that whenever you say something is “less” or “more” you have to say what you’re comparing it to. Otherwise I might assume that they’re telling me that their gum is less intense than, say, Dentyne Black Ice (which pretty much every gum already is)
Trident is now the opposite of Suntory whisky, the sale of which apparently requires “more intensity.” This notwithstanding the fact that for “relaxing times,” one should make it “Suntory time.”
“Tastes less like chewing toothpaste” would be more accurate, peut etre.
Eric, I’m with you on that!
Now if only they could stop making the packaging on gum so wasteful. The blisterpacks that are in vogue these days drive me nuts. It seems harder and harder to find plain old sticks of gum tightly packaged in thin paper, AND with “less intense” flavour.
I remember years ago a study came out that said chewing sugarless gum for ten minutes after eating was equal to brushing your teeth, in terms of fighting cavities. So, all the brands tried to switch to blister packs, which make the gum look more like medicine and less like candy.
I also wish they’d change back to the paper packs, because then I could carry my gum in my pocket, not my bag. I like my gum warm.
darren, have you watched the Indiana Jones movie yet? If so, did you enjoy it?
Also, if you have stomach problems like me, mint that’s way too minty can be a bad thing. I’d probably choose a ‘less intense’ mint if given the choice (though I like to chew the Trident gum that comes in the dark blue package).