In 1924, Oscar F. Mayer (who’d started a butcher shop in Chicago with his brother Gottfried) patented presliced, packed bacon. Soon, Mayer added the brand’s signature yellow band, which quickly became an instantly recognizable guarantee of quality. That was important. Each and every American put away around 120 pounds of meat (including bacon) every year. Concerns focused on product integrity. Cholesterol? Fat? Foreign words!
Those blissful days ended in 1984 when Time magazine devoted its March 26 issue’s cover story to a groundbreaking study by Dr. Basil Rifkind, one that scientifically linked consumption of fat with heart disease. Outspoken and confident, Rifkind did not mince words about his findings. “The majority of people don’t know that they are a time bomb,” he said, and ordered us all to cut the fat—or die.
Americans freaked, and the fat-free craze was thus born. Food manufacturers responded seemingly overnight, packing store shelves with dubious, substitute, pseudo-foods like Snackwells and Egg Beaters. Meanwhile, Oscar Mayer had little choice but to respond, too, which it did with product shown in this 1986 ad. Never mind that “lean bacon” was an oxymoron roughly on part with “military intelligence” and “Amtrak schedule,” don’t blame Oscar Mayer, said Steve Stallman, founder of Stallman Marketing, which specializes in the food industry. “Manufacturers believed what they were told by consumer research—which was that people wanted to eat healthier and buy products that were better for them.”
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