“I wonder if they couldn’t have taken more from what they had and re-energized it to make it look cool, like the Juicy Fruit model and Hershey’s model,” said Mr. Carbone, referring to the gum brand and chocolate bar that have tweaked their looks over the years but not metamorphosed. “I think this is a little bit of an overreach,” he said, “because they had some equity and authenticity” in their original design.

Bazooka, however, which has struggled to get shelf space in the last decade, said the bold approach was winning over retailers. Among those not carrying the brand now that will begin stocking it early in 2013 are Target, 7-Eleven and Kroger.

The gum originally sold for a penny in individual pieces on countertop displays in penny candy stores. The new standard package will feature 10 pieces of gum, five each of the original flavor and of a new flavor, blue raspberry.

A piece of the rectangular gum will increase in size to 6 grams from 4.5 grams, a mouthful compared with brands like Stride, with pieces at 1.9 grams, and Dentyne Ice, at 1.5 grams. (Along with being more elastic than typical gum, bubble gum generally comes in bigger pieces, giving chewers more to inflate.)

In recent years, sugarless gums have increasingly been marketed for functional benefits, like freshening breath, whitening teeth and strengthening teeth, with some brands even winning approval to carry the American Dental Association seal and a statement that chewing sugarless gum after eating helps reduce cavities.

But the draw for regular gum tends to be more indulgent, with 17.9 percent of those who chew regular gum doing so because they like the taste, in contrast to 15.1 percent of sugarless chewers, according to a 2010 report from the National Confectioners Association, an industry group.