Fruit Stripe Gum
Rainbow-striped sticks of gum fronted by Yipes the zebra, whose wrappers doubled as temporary tattoos. A childhood staple you unwrapped as much for the tattoo as for the gum itself.
Fruit Stripe long predates the 90s — it was invented by James Parker and first sold by Beech-Nut in 1960 — but it became a fixture of 90s kid life as a bright, cheap, multi-flavor treat. Each stick was printed with rainbow stripes, and the whole brand was built around Yipes, a cartoon zebra whose 'Yipes! Stripes!' slogan and striped hide were plastered across the packaging.
The real hook for a lot of kids was the wrapper. Every Fruit Stripe wrapper carried a temporary tattoo of Yipes, so unwrapping a piece meant peeling off a tattoo to lick and press onto the back of your hand. The gum was almost the bonus.
Made in later years by the Ferrara Candy Company, Fruit Stripe was finally discontinued in January 2024, ending a run of more than sixty years. Its send-off was met with a wave of nostalgia for exactly that ritual: the zebra, the rainbow stripes, and the tattoo that came free with every stick.
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