Jason Liebig is a candy historian, an unusual vocational title, but one he wears proudly. Having penned nearly 600 articles on the topic over at his CollectingCandy.com website and his TheCandyGeek YouTube channel, Liebig’s knowledge on the history of confectionery branding and marketing is unique. He’s also consulted on the topic of vintage consumer products for hit television shows such as AMC’s 1960’s era Mad Men and currently ABC’s The Goldbergs, set in the 1980’s. Now, Liebig is endeavoring to take his love of candy as well as all things Star Wars and zombies, and independently launch a new bubblegum to market.
The Kickstarter campaign for Zombie Mouth Bubblegum (the first ever bubblegum to debut on the crowdfunding platform) aims to creatively bypass the barriers to entry in the billion dollar confectionery business. Zombie Mouth creator Jason Liebig wants to take the independent and creator-owned approaches used so successfully in the comic book, toy and video game industries and try to apply it to the confection.
For the candy industry professionals who have been privy to an advance look at the campaign, it’s a concept that they have been slow to fully grasp or endorse. Liebig who is also the publisher of candy history site CollectingCandy.com as well as having Marvel Comics’ X-Men on his resume understands why industry insiders might be skeptical,
They look at me and they just see this guy, this blogger, and they think “well, he’s a hobbyist – he doesn’t know this business.” And they’re sort of right, because even though I’ve been researching and writing about candy for years, most of the daily ins-and-outs of the business side remain largely foreign to me. But after submerging myself in every brand launched over the last half-century, I’ve learned a lot.
And what those industry insiders don’t understand is that I’m not interested in getting into their business. I’m interested in approaching confection as a specific kind of intimate-yet-shared event. I’m interested in channeling what I’ve seen going on at Comic Cons and Zombie Walks and online with things like Twitter and Periscope. I think you can come at confection in a much more focused, limited scale. You can create more intimate exclusive experiences that are at the same time communal, and in so doing, make it more intense and memorable. I think you can bring the heightened shared-geek-experience of something like a San Diego Comic Con or an indy music festival and deliver a version of that with candy and bubblegum. And you can do all that with a product that is fun and that features fantastic artwork and packaging design. I know it sounds crazy, but I absolutely believe it can be done.
With a geek-worthy origin story that hearkens back to a childhood Darth Vader birthday cake, Liebig’s Zombie Mouth Bubblegum or more importantly the Kickstarter campaign for Zombie Mouth Bubblegum is an unprecedented crowdfunding first. It might be hard to believe, but this is the first time in the history of Kickstarter (or any other crowd funding site) that anyone has ever tried to create a new bubblegum using the service.
Characterizing Zombie Mouth’s approach as “independently-produced and art-driven” Liebig has nonetheless lined-up established players to help bring this unprecedented bubblegum to fruition. With the Ford Gum and Machine Company of Akron, New York already lined-up to manufacture Zombie Mouth Bubblegum in their factory, it will proudly be labeled “Made In America”.
Not only that but Liebig has worked out a deal to include 1,000 limited edition packages of Big League Chew shredded bubble gum, specially rebranded as Zombie League Chew (with outstanding artwork by Hollywood is Dead artist Matt Busch), as one-time rewards for the Kickstarter campaign backers.
It’s the unique combination of edgy contemporary packaging art, Comic-Con marketing savvy, and throwback confectionery fun that gives the creator of Zombie Mouth Bubblegum the optimism that this unique and unprecedented Kickstarter campaign will succeed and might even pioneer the way for other ambitious artistic wannabe candy-makers to bring their products to life in the future.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872361452/make-zombie-mouth-bubblegum-a-reality
