Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and I've got a classic
Speaker 1: episode for you from our erstwhile host, Christian Sagar. Bacon
Speaker 1: may have seen its peak internet fame a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, but it still has a home on many
Speaker 1: humans plates, especially at breakfast. But this wasn't always the case.
Speaker 1: Here's why, Hey brain Stuff, it's me Christian Sagar. Every day,
Speaker 1: before I head into the studio, I have a healthy,
Speaker 1: hearty breakfast of eggs, coffee, and of course bacon. Well
Speaker 1: I'm vegetarian, so in my case it's veggie bacon who
Speaker 1: has their life together enough to eat breakfast every day? Anyways, Right,
Speaker 1: that's crazy talk. But the point is this. If you
Speaker 1: are in the United States, then you already know that
Speaker 1: bacon is one of the most popular breakfast foods in civilization,
Speaker 1: right up there with eggs. But this wasn't always the case.
Speaker 1: For much of American history, breakfast would be something simple
Speaker 1: like a slice of buttered toast with coffee and orange juice.
Speaker 1: And believe it or not, there's one man responsible for
Speaker 1: changing the way America eats breakfast. His name Edward Burne's.
Speaker 1: I know, I know you're probably wondering, how could just
Speaker 1: one guy sway the minds of millions. Wasn't bacon already around? Yeah? Sure,
Speaker 1: bacon or cured pork has been around in European cuisine
Speaker 1: for hundreds and hundreds of years, but it wasn't thought
Speaker 1: of as a breakfast food. So in and Out Foot
Speaker 1: named the Beechnut Packing Company hired Edward Burnet's to boost
Speaker 1: their bacon sales. Most ad guys at the time would
Speaker 1: have high tailed it to a pitch room brainstorming catchy
Speaker 1: slogans like Macon bacon, for example, or that bacon pancake
Speaker 1: song from Adventure Time, But Berne's didn't go straight for ads. Instead,
Speaker 1: he commissioned a study. In a quote scientific poll Berne
Speaker 1: Has had, a physician asked five thousand doctors the same
Speaker 1: loaded question, is a quote hearty breakfast better than a
Speaker 1: light breakfast to replace energy lost by the body at night.
Speaker 1: Because of the way the poll was phrased, most doctors
Speaker 1: agreed that a hearty breakfast was superior. Burns reported these
Speaker 1: quote scientific results to other doctors across the United States.
Speaker 1: He also embarked upon a broadcast in print campaign reporting
Speaker 1: these results along with advertisements for bacon. This campaign exhibited
Speaker 1: some brilliant, if not exactly ethical strategies. First, it used
Speaker 1: the appearance of objective scientific evidence. Second, this evidence came
Speaker 1: from trusted authority figures, and third it sounded like nutritional
Speaker 1: advice rather than an add Whether you like bacon or not,
Speaker 1: you can't argue with the results. Beach nut profits sword
Speaker 1: and today, bacon is a major breakfast heavyweight. Each year,
Speaker 1: people consume more than one point seven billion pounds of
Speaker 1: this stuff in the United States alone own and that's
Speaker 1: just counting statistics from the food service industry. A little
Speaker 1: more than half of all U S homes keep bacon
Speaker 1: on hand at all times. So there you have it,
Speaker 1: the story of how one man fundamentally changed the way
Speaker 1: America eats every morning. That's not the only thing he
Speaker 1: successfully sold either. He popularized soap, cigarettes, and even one war.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Ben Bolan and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on Edward Burns impact
Speaker 1: on our world, check out Ben's show Stuff They Don't
Speaker 1: Want You To Know, And of course, for more on
Speaker 1: this unless of other savory topics, visit our home planet,
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com. Plus for more podcasts. For
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, you can visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Two