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It’s a staple of an All-American breakfast, but the origins of a bacon and egg breakfast is just the result of a really good public relations campaign from the 1920’s.
Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, hosts of the Stuff You Should Know podcast, dive into the history of some of the most popular breakfast items in the world. First on the menu was bacon and eggs, a food pairing that was unheard until 100 years ago.
“From what I can tell, breakfast (back then) more resembled breakfast today,” said Josh. “You really ate anything. It was quick, coinvent, and out the door.”
So, what changed? In comes Edward Bernays, “father of public relations,” who was hired by the Beech-Nut Packing Company to help boost the sales of one of their least successful products, bacon.
“It was not a breakfast item,” said Chuck. “They mounted a whole PR campaign to say, ‘Hey its first thing in the morning, you need to just really load up on tons of food. And bacon should be a part of your stable diet. It goes great with eggs.”
Bernays asked doctors if they recommended a hearty breakfast over a light breakfast, and most said yes. He then promoted the idea that doctors recommended a hearty breakfast every morning consisting of bacon and eggs.
“They advertised you lose energy overnight, so you need to fill up on a big breakfast,” said Josh. “This idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day comes from that advertising.”
It turns out that bacon and eggs are not the only breakfast food that started out this way, so check out “The Origins of Breakfast Foods” on the iHeartRadio app to hear more. Chuck and Josh release new episodes of their podcast Stuff You Should Know every week wherever you listen to podcasts.
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