In 1891, William Wrigley Jr. wasn’t selling gum. He was selling soap and baking powder. 

To sweeten the deal, he tossed in sticks of chewing gum as a free gift. Customers loved the gum more than the products they paid for, so Wrigley ditched soap and baking powder altogether. 

Over a century later, in 2008, Mars, Inc. bought the gum giant in a deal worth about $23 billion, cementing one of the biggest candy takeovers in history.