Bubble gum is pink because its inventor only had pink food coloring on hand during his first successful batch.

Walter Diemer was an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia during the late 1920s. While he was not a chemist, he spent his free time experimenting with new gum recipes in the company laboratory. In 1928, he finally perfected a formula that was less sticky and more elastic than traditional chewing gum, allowing for the creation of large bubbles that would not tear easily.The original mixture was a naturally unappealing shade of gray. Diemer wanted to make the product more visually appealing to consumers, but the only food coloring available in the factory at that moment was a bottle of pink dye. He poured it into the batch, creating the iconic bright pink hue that became synonymous with the product.The gum was marketed under the name Dubble Bubble and was an immediate commercial success. In its first year alone, the product brought in over 1.5 million dollars in sales despite the onset of the Great Depression. Diemer personally taught salesmen how to blow bubbles so they could demonstrate the product to shopkeepers and customers.Because Dubble Bubble dominated the market for decades, other manufacturers adopted the same pink color to meet consumer expectations. Today, while bubble gum can be made in any color, pink remains the global standard for classic bubble gum flavor. This historical accident effectively defined the visual identity of an entire confectionery category for nearly a century.