What Bacon and Eggs Can Teach Us About Branding

The Strange Marketing Story That Made Bacon the American Breakfast

Bacon, eggs, potatoes, pancakes, maybe a glass of orange juice?

For many people in North America that combination feels like the most normal breakfast in the world.

It feels traditional, familiar, a core memory of your childhood.

But here’s the strange part:

For most of history, this wasn’t breakfast at all.

In fact, the classic American breakfast we know today was largely created by a marketing campaign.

And the story behind it reveals something surprisingly important about branding, habits, and business strategy.

A Problem the Pork Industry Needed to Solve

In the early 1900s, Americans didn’t eat heavy breakfasts.

Most mornings looked very different from what we see today.

A typical breakfast might have been:

• coffee

• fruit

• toast

• oatmeal

Many people ate very little before starting the day.

Some skipped breakfast entirely.

At the time, the idea of eating a heavy plate of meat first thing in the morning felt unnecessary... even unhealthy.

For pork producers, this was a major problem.

Bacon existed. People enjoyed it.

But they didn’t associate it with breakfast.

And if consumers didn’t build a daily habit around bacon, sales would always remain limited.

The pork industry needed to create a new routine.

So they hired a public relations expert named Edward Bernays.

The Man Behind the Campaign

Edward Bernays is often referred to as the father of modern public relations.

He was deeply influenced by the work of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, and believed that understanding human psychology was the key to shaping public behavior.

Bernays didn’t think of marketing as simply promoting products.

He believed marketing was about engineering consent (shaping how people perceived the world around them.)

Throughout his career, Bernays helped companies reshape public habits and cultural norms.

One of his most infamous campaigns later encouraged women to smoke by framing cigarettes as symbols of liberation in the “Torches of Freedom” campaign.

But one of his earliest and most successful projects involved something far more ordinary:

Breakfast.

Bernays Didn’t Start by Promoting Bacon

Most marketers begin with the product.

Bernays began with the environment.

He studied the problem and realized something important:

• The issue wasn’t bacon.

• The issue was the idea of breakfast itself.

  
  

If Americans believed breakfast should be light, bacon would never naturally fit into the routine.

No amount of advertising could fix that. The habit had to change first.

So Bernays asked a different question:

What if the definition of a healthy breakfast could be reframed?

The Strategy: Borrowing Authority

Bernays knew that cultural habits are easier to change when the message comes from a trusted authority.

So instead of launching a bacon advertisement, he reached out to thousands of physicians across the United States and asked them a simple question:

Is a heavier breakfast healthier than a light breakfast?

Many doctors responded that a substantial breakfast could indeed be beneficial.

(This wasn’t a rigorous scientific study.)

But Bernays didn’t need one.

What he needed was credibility.

He compiled the responses and turned them into a press headline:

“4,500 Doctors Recommend a Hearty Breakfast.”

And when journalists reported the story, they needed an example of what that hearty breakfast might include.

Bernays gave them one: Bacon and eggs.

How a Cultural Habit Was Created

The story spread quickly.

Newspapers ran the headline. Magazines repeated it. And restaurants began offering heavier breakfast plates.

And slowly, public perception shifted.

Within a few years, bacon and eggs became associated with a healthy morning meal.

Within a few decades, it became the default American breakfast.

Today, the U.S. breakfast food industry generates tens of billions of dollars annually.

Not because bacon changed.

But because the context around bacon changed.

The Psychology Behind the Campaign

Bernays understood something that many businesses still overlook today:

People rarely change their behavior because of products.

They change their behavior because their perception of the environment shifts.

Before the campaign, bacon was simply another food.

• After the campaign, bacon became part of a cultural ritual.

• A daily habit.

• And habits are incredibly powerful.

Once something becomes part of a routine, it stops feeling like a choice.

It simply feels normal.

The Real Branding Lesson

This story isn’t really about breakfast.

It’s about strategy.

Bernays didn’t try to convince people to buy bacon.

He changed the story surrounding breakfast.

Instead of fighting the market, he reframed the market.

And that’s what powerful branding does.

The best brands don’t always invent something completely new.

Sometimes they simply help people see something familiar in a different way.

What This Means for Your Business

When founders reach out to Jaia Studio, they often assume the next step for their business is obvious.

They think they need:

• a new logo

• a website redesign

• more marketing

• more social media content

But often the real issue isn’t effort.

It’s clarity.

If you solve the wrong problem, growth becomes slow, frustrating, and expensive.

Just like the pork industry couldn’t increase bacon sales until the idea of breakfast changed, many businesses struggle because they’re focusing on the wrong stage of growth.

The Four Stages of Brand Growth

Over the years, I started noticing a pattern in the wellness and fitness businesses I worked with.

Most brands move through four distinct stages:

01 Emerging: Still refining their niche, positioning, and messaging.

02 : Growing: The business is gaining traction, but the brand identity feels inconsistent or unfinished.

03 Established: Revenue is strong, but the brand no longer reflects the level of the business.

04 Premium: The company is scaling and needs a full ecosystem from branding, website, messaging, and experience to support higher positioning.

Each stage requires a different strategic focus.

And when founders understand which stage they’re actually in, the next step becomes much clearer.

Want to See What Stage Your Brand Is In?

If you're unsure what your business truly needs next, I created a simple tool to help.

The Jaia Studio Brand Assessment identifies:

• where your brand currently stands

• how your audience likely perceives it

• what strategic move will create the most momentum

You can take it here:  Take the Jaia Studio Brand Assessment

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This article is part of The Psychology of Premium, a series exploring how branding, perception, and consumer psychology shape successful businesses.

Each week we break down a fascinating marketing story and translate it into practical insight for founders.

Next week we’ll explore another strange piece of marketing history:

How orange juice became a breakfast staple.

(It wasn’t always.)

If you enjoy thoughtful insights about branding, strategy, and building a premium business, you can join the Jaia Studio newsletter here:

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The American breakfast didn’t change because bacon improved.

It changed because perception shifted.

And once perception shifts, behavior often follows.

That’s the real power of branding.