Bacon' cologne ads all sizzle, no pork

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

At least when the restaurant trade hopped on the bacon band wagon of late they had the decency to buy some. Not so with a particular cologne maker.

Fargginay Inc., headquartered in Chicago, promotes its "Bacon" brand of unisex cologne extensively on the Internet, using ads that are either humorous, risqué, or both. According to its promotion: "The year was 1920 and quite by accident John Fargginay, a butcher from Paris, discovered the ability to dramatically elevate his customer's mood with a secret recipe blending 11 popular pure essential oils with the essence of . . . bacon."

Sometime after, the butcher was thrown under the bus. The Fargginay website explains that no "piggy" parts were involved in the making of the cologne, undoubtedly to avoid offending those who prefer tofu over pork. Essentially, the essence is fake. The website also brags that "we own the trademark rights to the name bacon for fragrances in the U.S. and the European Union."

The Fargginay website says: "Bacon is sizzling. Hotter than ever according to (Internet search engine) Google. Globally, 2,240,000 people googled the word bacon in December. In North America, 1,220,000....." BP