I Love Bacon
Yes, I love bacon. I’m a firm subscriber to the “Anything is better with bacon” rule. Here are a couple of bacon-related products that tell different stories about themselves.
First up - Mo’s Bacon Bar, by Vosges, a makes of high-ish end candy bars. It’s a chocolate bar with bits of bacon mixed in. Seems like it would be weird, and it is - tastes like delicious chocolate with a bacon aftertaste. But I appreciate the brazen appeal to two major food indulgences, and there’s no mistaking the point of the product.
In product-mythology terms, it’s a hero product: it stands for eating what you love. If chocolate is delicious, and bacon is delicious, chocolate-bacon must be even more delicious. It’s a low-risk adventure.
On the other hand, consider Lodge. They make great cast-iron cookware, and a couple of years ago I acquired a large skillet. There was a label attached to the bottom of the pan, picturing some sizzling life-sized bacon. It’s a great ad for the product - you can almost smell the bacon and it’s clear what the pan is for.
But Lodge goes on to hedge its bets. Also on the label is a dubious message promoting the use of the skillet as a vehicle for “Natural, Healthy Cooking.” Really? Is this bacon healthier than if I’d cooked it on some other skillet?
Lodge is simultaneously trying to appeal to the health-conscious and the bacon-conscious, but that just isn’t possible. Lodge tries to position this product as a Star, but isn’t fooling anyone. It’s a great product, but the label reads like a dubious infomercial.
Question for you: What would you add to turn your product’s story into an oxymoron? Is already an oxymoron?
While I can’t come up with an oxymoron, I can say that the bacon cooked in the Lodge pan is possibly more “healthy” as it gets extra iron from the pan. Yes, a really big and possibly ridiculous stretch.
My wife and I share your adoration of bacon which has led to the creation of a fictional Bacon Vending Machine (I gave the idea to a friend for Christmas) and the bacon schooner, an actual product we received from another friend.
5 words: bacon of the month club.
google it.
I’m a member. In short, it’s AMAZING.
Do it. Do it for Diana. Do it for the children. Do it because it exists and NPR is doing pretty well already this year so you can divert your contribution to pork fat rather than the news.