Chris Brown's "Forever" Turns Out To Be A Corporate Jingle For Wrigley's Gum

Upon finding out the following info yesterday, I thought, I should be outraged! I should be ashamed! Chris Brown is corporate Pied Piper who duped us all!

That lasted for about two seconds, then I remembered, Oh, right—I have no shame.

The below revelation on Chris Brown's "Forever"—a song D'luv has been touting since April—appeared in a Wall Street Journal piece Monday:

What listeners don't know—and what Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. planned to reveal Tuesday—is that the song is a commercial.

"Forever" is an extended version of a new Doublemint jingle written by Mr. Brown and scheduled to begin airing next month in 30-second spots for Wrigley's green-packaged chewing gum.

Mr. Brown is one of a trio of pop stars enlisted by ad agency Translation Advertising, a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos., to update the images of three of Wrigley's best-known brands.

The campaign includes spots featuring R&B singer Ne-Yo doing his own take on Big Red's "kiss a little longer" jingle. And Dancing With the Stars regular-turned-country-singer Julianne Hough recorded a twangy version of Juicy Fruit's "The taste is gonna move ya."

But Mr. Brown's "Forever" is the most ambitious part of the campaign. Mr. Brown was commissioned to write and sing both the pop song and a new version of the Doublemint jingle, introduced in 1960.

First, Mr. Brown updated the jingle and recorded it with hip-hop producer Polow Da Don. Then, during the same Los Angeles recording sessions in February, paid for by Wrigley, Mr. Brown added new lyrics and made a 4½-minute rendition of the tune, titled "Forever."

In April, Mr. Brown's record label, Jive, released the song to radio stations and digital download services as a single. After the song became a hit, Jive added it to his 2007 album, Exclusive, and re-released the album in June.

Hence the "double your pleasure/double your fun" line in "Forever," and him popping a stick of gum in his mouth at the beginning of the video. Sneaky!

Here's a commercial for Doublemint gum from the '80s, along with Chris Brown performing "Forever" on The Today Show last month:



Whatever. He's still hot. And 19. That's legal, right?