One thing I routinely throw in the trash is gum. The marketing of gum is a really interesting thing to examine, in that it is strongly linked to candy marketing targeting children and teens. Nowadays, it seems that there is every possible flavor of candy and gum. This is something that I feel has been on the rise in the past two decades or so. For example, I remember as a kid in a grocery store checkout line just seeing Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, as the token Reese’s product. Now, when I look through grocery store checkout lines, I see about six different Reese’s products. Therefore, I imagine when archaeologists dig up all the candies and gums, a view of marketing and the larger number of products would be clear. With the strong rise of technology, advertising has certainly changed, leaving old tactics to possibly be not as effective, so insight into that could be discovered by archaeologists as well. At times, chewing gum has been seen as a sign of disrespect, for example my childhood classrooms, as it was not something we were allowed to have. However, I am not sure how common this idea is now. Therefore, looking at the frequency of people’s gum consumption and where it happens intrigues me. Overall, seeing where gum is found most often would give archaeologists an understanding of our world’s levels of acceptability or not of gum, who is consuming it and why, and how marketing and advertising have influenced these things, specifically in children’s lives.