Boom boom Boomer - The sensation

Boomer - The king of bubble gums

My obsession with Boomer dates back to the very day I saw my friend popping 'bubbles' with a gum. I remember buying a Boomer a day for over a year.!


Though a lot of gums were available in the market (in the late 90's), I picked Boomer due to a lot of reasons. All of those reasons now translate into marketing lessons now.

• Unlike other bubble gums, Boomer was LONGER... This made it a very viable option to start popping bubbles with. What better can be an example for product design ???

• The iconic Boomer Man. Not many ad campaigns have been hugely successful as the Boomer man. Firstly, the graphics in the ad was way ahead of times. It was simply flawless and I always liked to believe that a Boomer man actually existed :D. Every ad was themed to be a short cartoon and all of it was just brilliant. Here is one that i found on Youtube.

• Here comes the best part,, TATTOOS..! Every piece of Boomer had a temporary sticker along with it. We called it 'Boomer Tattoos'. This was a wild rage among the kids. The stickers mostly had greeting messages from languages across the world and an image of the Boomer-man. Kids back then went gaga about it. A guy with the most number of tattoos was virtually the boss.

What started as a rage in the late 90's, the hype around Boomer faded during the 2002 - 03. This was majorly because, with its aggressive promotion Boomer was a run away hit in the year that it was launched, what followed after did not meet the initial success. Boomer was launched in many flavors like Orange, Mint, Jelly etc. None of it was as successful as the initial Strawberry flavor.

Eventually, Joyco, the Spanish confectionery that launched Boomer in India sold its Indian operations to Wrigley's and Boomer is now sold by Wrigley's all over the country. They are not doing a good job either. Boomer is not yet another bubble gum people buy when the shop keeper runs out of change :(

All I can think of to revive the brand is to go back to the roots. Bring back the tattoos and bring back Boomer-man. This might be quite outdated now, in the age of learning A.B.C.D through iPad. If Wrigley's has aggressive plans for 'reviving' Boomer, there is one tip I have for them, 'Go talk to every kid that wants to pop a bubble'.! 

Thumbs up for Thums-Up

Thums-Up, the first brand that won my loyalty.!
As a kid, I remember drinking only thums up, and refusing to drink anyother cola, if offered.

Personally, I consider myself a 'Pepsi' man, a kid that grew up with 'Generation X' ads and reading 'Odeyssy..From Pepsi to Apple' (I strongly recommend this book). In spite of this love for Pepsi, 'Thums Up' remains my favorite brand of all times.

It is mostly because of the unique 'desi' taste that the drink has. It is refreshingly different from all other Cola's in the market. Besides, the drink has a 'manly' outlook to it.

When I see myself on a road trip with my friends, all geared up in rugged shoes and shades, Thums-Up is the drink I want to carry along with.  And I love my Whisky with a dose of Thums-Up.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi can be reserved for an evening date with a girl, not when you are with a bunch of guys.! 

It is no surprise to me that Thums-Up has the largest market share in the 'Indian Cola Pie'. (It is shocking that Coca-Cola once wanted to kill this brand)

Read, more about Thums-Up's history from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thums_Up.

My Two Cents:

• I see no other drink overtaking Thums-Up for a long time to come.
• Coca-Cola, has never been vocal about Thums-Up being the largest selling brand in India. Pesonally, I feel that, the refrigerators that you find Coca-Cola stocked in in stores should be sticker-ed with 'Thums-Up' and not the red colored 'Coca-Cola'.