It may sound like baloney, but American meat maker Oscar Mayer has entered the cryptocurrency space â sort of.
The company announced on Monday the unveiling of âBacoin,â which it is calling âthe first-ever cryptocurrency backed by the gold standard of Oscar Mayer Bacon.â
With the initiative, Oscar Mayer is offering bacoins as a kind of online incentive to get users promoting the brandâs meat products on social media and email. Through the companyâs official website, users âmineâ bacoins that become worth more â denominated by slices of bacon â as consumer awareness is increased. Accompanying the campaign is a new commercial pitching the bacoin.
Bacoins can then be cashed out by customers for real packs of bacon, according to the company. As of press time, the value of a single bacoin is worth three slices of the companyâs bacon, according to its official price tracker.
âOscar Mayer is the gold standard of bacon because of our dedication to hand-selecting the best cuts and then naturally sugar curing and naturally hardwood smoking our bacon,â the companyâs brand manager, Matt Riezman said in a statement.
With the move, the 130-year-old Oscar Mayer becomes the latest food company to jump on the cryptocurrency branding bandwagon. Back in January, KFC Canada launched a bitcoin-themed promotion that saw it selling a so-called âBitcoin Bucketâ to select customers.
Image via YouTube/Oscar Mayer