Design I like- Stride Gum takes over El Toro

Within the past couple of years the digital age has truly been booming. It has been impossible to avert your eyes from advertisements no matter where you go. Recently I found an advertisement in one of the most unlikely places, a rollercoaster.

The ad was for Stride’s new flavor changing gum and it was located on El Toro in Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. For those unfamiliar with Six Flags rollercoaster, El Toro is a huge wooden coaster and only a couple of years old. Many rollercoaster lovers wait for hours on the line for El Toro making it an interesting place for an ad that is bound to draw many eyes.

The advertisement’s color popped on the otherwise dull light brown colored wood cars. The pinks and blues of the ad filled every alternating car. I really liked the bright colors because they drew my eyes and left me very curious as to what the ad was trying to portray.


Stride’s new flavor changing gum is supposed to take you on a journey from a fruity to minty flavor. The tagline on the advertisement was in simple white Helvetica text stating “Going Up, Going Down,” very fitting for a rollercoaster that prides itself on hills, spirals, and speed. The simple Helvetica text was not lavish and showed that the main focus of the ad was not on the text. The main focus of the ad was that is was in an unlikely place like El Toro.

The advertisement had a graphic of the gum box. The graphic stuck to the color scheme of the rest of the rollercoaster car with bright blues and pinks but also adding a touch of yellow to add contrast to the gum package. The giant “S” on the graphic represents the logo for stride gum.

I loved the design of the new Stride advertisement. I never saw an advertisement on a rollercoaster and I could not help but think about why a company would chose a rollercoaster. Then I realized that clearly the advertisement worked because it got me thinking.