Beauty Meets Bacon in Oscar Mayer's Mouth Watering Spots

Today, Oscar Mayer launches one of its boldest campaigns in recent history by going where no bacon ad has gone before: the personal care and beauty space. With the help of creative agency Johannes Leonardo, the brand – known for sparking smiles – is turning up the heat to highlight its unique 12-hour Thick-Cut Bacon-smoking process… a full 6-8 hours longer than any other brand in the category. 

Picture this: the creative starts with a mouth-watering closeup of the bacon sizzling with a deep-voiced narrator explaining the 12-hour smoking process, before transitioning to a seemingly separate lip gloss or men’s razor commercial when the smoking bacon (and wafting aroma) reappears to remind viewers – and the spot’s distracted talent – that yes, that delicious meat is still smoking and you’re still watching an Oscar Mayer ad.  

In true ‘Keep It Oscar’ fashion, the new creative offers a dose of unexpected levity as it reinforces that its mouth-watering bacon is smoked for 2-3x longer than other brands. 

As Oscar Mayer’s new Thick-Cut Bacon ad fades, it transitions into a second, seemingly unrelated spot for razors or lip gloss, where viewers will be surprised to see the signature bacon still smoking in the corner – reinforcing the time and lengths the brand will go to smoke its meat to perfection.

“At Oscar Mayer, our goal is to ‘Keep It Oscar’ in everything we do by bringing a sense of fun and levity to the everyday. So while we could simply tell fans our delicious bacon’s 12-hour smoking process is the only one that delivers the crispy, smoky flavours they crave, we opted to meat them in unexpected ways to challenge the traditional paid media mix – sparking smiles and bacon cravings across music, sports and gaming platforms nationwide.” said Shelby Max, brand communications manager for Oscar Mayer.

“All bacon ads are about bacon, but when your bacon is smoked longer than most, sometimes your bacon ad will run into a beauty ad, or a shaving ad. When the regular 15-second media buy just isn’t enough time to demonstrate how long we smoke your bacon, we took aim at disrupting all the other ads to prove our point. We’re smoked longer.” said Zack Roif, creative director.

The media buy leverages several digital touchpoints, including OLV, social media, display and streaming audio tactics across iHeart Radio, Twitch and sports mediums. Oscar Mayer’s newest bacon campaign was developed and produced by Johannes Leonardo with Carat US and GroupBlack supporting paid media, Cashmere leading cultural marketing, The Kitchen on social media and Zeno Group on PR.