What the hell is up with bacon?

Before everyone starts hating on me let me say, I enjoy bacon a great deal. It is very tasty and there are quite a few things that are improved by adding bacon. I had some bacon wrapped pork chops the other night that were simply incredible. I am not discouraging anyone from eating bacon or loving bacon, well maybe I am just a little.

People have gone seriously nuts with the bacon. In under 2 minutes of Google searching I came across more than one online store entirely centered on bacon, a blog entirely about bacon, a bra made of bacon, condoms made of bacon, a coffee mug made of bacon, and so much more. This is just stupid and weird. Bacon is very tasty, no doubt, but it has got to make a rather unsupportive bra, a pretty ineffective condom, and it baffles me that the economy can support multiple business entirely centered around selling people bacon related products. Why are we blogging about bacon? Why are we making socks with bacon prints? (If I was good at interneting I would provide links to these things, but I am not good at the internets so you’ll have to Google bacon on your own.)

Via Pinterest you can find ways to add bacon to just about any other food. Why? Is bacon that good? Well yes, yes it is. But that is not my point.

My real point is that a bacon culture has sprung up. People at almost every age are now being told from the internet, television and even radio that bacon is amazing. That bacon is the best food ever and we should all eat more of it and think about it and own as many bacon related things as possible because bacon makes you happy and will lead to a better more fulfilled life.

Why am I bothered by this? Bacon is really bad for you. It seems like we have just made a very profitable fad out of advocating a food that directly aids the leading cause of death in the US: heart disease.

A consistent bacon habit is really not very good for you. And with heart disease being the leading cause of death in this country, shouldn’t we be a bit more concerned at bacon’s current popularity and social status.

Am I the only crazy person that sees advertising, toys, books, clothes, etc. related to bacon and think “this reminds me of cigarette ads aimed at kids”. Is that too far? Camel Joe eating bacon and looking really cool in his sunglasses? OK maybe I’m the only one. Obviously bacon is not as bad as smoking. But we have made a very unhealthy food extremely cool.

That said, I smoke and eat bacon. I’m just wondering if we should be a little more conscientious about the things we make cool. Do we have a social responsibility not to make kids think that unhealthy things are cool and the best? Not sure, but really interested to see if anyone else has thought about this.