Sunday, April 06, 2008

Trapped in a Bubble Gum Factory

When I was a kid, I used to love Bazooka Joe gum, mainly for the comic strips within the wrappers of each piece. The bottom of the comic contained a one-line fortune for your day -- the sort you find inside a fortune cookie. Anyway, every once and awhile, I'd get a piece with a fortune that read: "Help! I'm trapped in a bubble gum factory!" The first time I saw this, around the tender age of 8 or 9, I thought it was actually a cry for help. I envisioned some poor factory worker being held against his will, forced to crank out print after print of Bazooka Joe comic strips. And this secret message he sent out, probably made on the rare opportunity when the boss wasn't looking, was his only chance for escape. It was a message in a bottle, an S.O.S. I showed it to my parents - they assured me it was probably just a joke. But I was always skeptical. I am to this day, especially now that I'm older, and therefore get the irony.

6 comments:

Scott Diggs said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott Diggs said...

I know this post is 3 years old, but I saw the same thing at around 10-12 years old. I have no idea why I decided today to type the phrase in Google, but there you have it...you are not alone.

Margie said...

You know, I saw that as a kid too. And I thought it was weird, but beyond that didn't do anything about it. I also think of it from time to time. I really thought of it tonight when I read this article.

http://www.ecouterre.com/woman-finds-plea-for-help-from-chinese-prison-slave-in-saks-bag/

I feel like that weirded out kid again....

Unknown said...

i remember this to when i was a kid. i believe this is a true S.O.S..

Unknown said...

I too found this message in the gum wrapper. My curiosity set me on a journey to find this factory and the mysterious author of the message. I search for for over 29 years and finally located the source.

Unknown said...

I remember this too. It freaked me out till this day. Where was this gum factory? In China?