That tasty bacon, wholesome cereal, and refreshing orange juice you enjoyed this morning? They became breakfast staples thanks to some deft marketing over the past century. Clever advertising and public relations campaigns run over decades transformed simple farm foods into "essential" morning meals.
Breakfast wasn't always a big affair. Before the late 1800s, people ate whatever leftovers or basic foods were on hand to break the overnight fast. Then the hearty farmer's breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon, and coffee took hold as they wanted a heavy meal to fuel physical labor during the day.
But as people moved from farms to cities and office jobs and sedentary office work grew, breakfast became lighter. Just coffee and toast or a roll. This worried the meat industry as bacon sales declined.
Enter Edward Bernays, the influential "father of public relations." His creative PR spin literally reshaped America's breakfast preferences.
In the 1920s, Beechnut Bacon hired Bernays to boost lagging sales. He paid a doctor to agree that a hearty breakfast was healthier than a small one, and then sent it to 5000 other doctors for their signatures. He then got newspapers to publish the results of his petition as if it was a scientific study. So "medical studies" declared bacon and eggs the perfect healthy breakfast. Newspapers and magazines helped spread this message to millions.
Bernays recognized that the public trusted doctors for nutrition advice. By promoting bacon as doctor-recommended, he reframed it as essential to good health. Sales soared.
Cereal Makers Follow Suit
The cereal industry also used health claims to make their products morning must-haves. In the 1860s, John H. Kellogg saw potential and launched corn flakes with his brother Will. Soon cereal was sold as the wholesome morning meal for proper digestion and avoiding illness.
Orange juice got a health halo too when Sunkist Growers formed in the 1920s. Their ad campaign portrayed oranges as packed with vitamin C, making orange juice the ideal breakfast drink.
These marketing tactics cemented the idea that breakfast must include certain "healthy" foods. Of course, companies profited handsomely from making their products seem essential to good nutrition.
Selling Convenience
As women entered the workforce in the early 1900s, advertisers positioned cereal as the quick, easy breakfast. Busy moms could serve it fast before rushing off to work. Brands like Grape Nuts and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes took off.
Product innovations also made breakfast more convenient. Orange juice concentrate shipped easily and kept longer, while sliced bread and single serve cereals expedited preparation.
Companies encouraged eating breakfast on-the-go too. Numerous products adopted the name "Breakfast Bar" or "Breakfast Biscuit" to convey their purpose. Fast food chains got in on creating hurried breakfast meals like the Egg McMuffin.
Attachment to Routine
What made Americans so receptive to marketing breakfast as a necessity? Much has to do with human psychology.
Eating specific morning foods became tied to ideas of health, wholesomeness, and virtue. People felt guilt and moral failure for skipping "the most important meal." Food choices became markers of identity.
Breakfast also represents comforting routine and family time to many. By embedding meaning into mundane morning foods, marketers made them special. People now eat breakfast not just to satisfy hunger, but for emotional satisfaction.
It Worked Too Well
Ironically, the breakfast habits instilled by marketing may now contribute to obesity and health issues. With 300 to 500 calories, the beloved bacon and eggs and cereal aren't exactly slimming choices.
And thoughtless eating out of habit can lead to overconsumption. Yet many cling to behaviors like big breakfasts, unable to break free of psychological associations.
That shows the lasting power of clever marketing. By transforming breakfast staples into "necessities," promoters changed more than what foods people ate. They reshaped how people think about and relate to morning meals.
Next time you sip OJ (Orange Juice) or crunch cereal, consider the calculated marketing that engineered your breakfast choices. Those simple foods actually reveal some not-so-simple lessons about human psychology and the power of perception.