Did Wrigley Adapt Chris Brown’s “Forever” For a Doublemint Gum Commercial?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Doublemint gum adapted Chris Brown’s “Forever” into a gum commercial.

Whether you think you are familiar with Chris Brown and his hit single, “Forever,” or not, there’s a very decent chance that you heard it as part of the very famous internet video of the wedding where the entire bridal party dances to the song (eventually parodied/referenced on the TV series The Office)…

In any event, the song in the video is Chris Brown’s “Forever.”

As you might notice in the song, there’s a line about “double your pleasure, double your fun,” which is the slogan for Wrigley’s Doublemint gum.

A variation of this song aired in 2008 as a commercial for Doublemint gum with Chris Brown starring in the commercial…

At the time, most folks presumed that, like many many commercials out there (from iPods to Ford Trucks to Caribbean Cruises), Doublemint was using a popular song for their commercial.

Heck, if you check out this YouTube clip of the commercial (courtesy of YouTube user ilikechrisbrn)…

then you will see that ilikechrisbrn even lists the video as “Chris Brown in a new TV commercial for Wrigley’s Doublemint gum featuring the new jingle based on Forever.”

However, amusingly enough, it is actually the OTHER way around.

You see, Doublemint actually commissioned Chris Brown to write a new jingle for Doublemint, and when it proved to be quite catchy, he then proceeded to expand the jingle (and write new lyrics for it, of course) and that turned into “Forever.”

While at first some radio stations were a bit wary about playing a song that was commissioned as a jingle, the song was so catchy that it ended up getting plenty of airplay.

In fact, Brown’s record label actually went BACK TO PRESS on his late 2007 record release, Exclusive, to include the unexpected hit song, calling the new June 2008 release Exclusive: The Forever Edition.

Pretty amazing journey for one song, isn’t it? From a jingle to a hit single to being the soundtrack for one of the most popular web videos ever (87,000,000 views and COUNTING)!

The legend is…

STATUS: False

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.

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