Consumer groups wax lyrical about it, vegetarians secretly scoff loads of it and it's often called the backbone of the grocery trade. Can there ever have been a product with as much going for it as bacon? Yet listening to the folk who celebrated the humble rasher during the Danes' annual bash in Copenhagen last weekend, one might very well think differently. According to Danish experts, and a fair few of their British opposite numbers, despite the product's obvious resiliance there's no room for complacency on the marketing front. Some gurus even insist that bacon still has "some way to go" if it is to continue to hold its own against the new, super packaged, hi-tech convenience foods of the 21st century. So, as the dreary old "Tooley Street commodity image" becomes a thing of the past, the marketing whizzkids are charged with rebranding the rasher into something that can consistently knock spots off the Big Mac. The buzz around the Copenhagen convention hall suggsted that, while enjoying an increased sale to Britain last year, the Scandinavians are working especially hard to turn bacon into a sexier product. And that's on top of all the development work in which some of the greatest Danes since Hamlet have indulged during recent years. So if you add the efforts on this side of the North Sea, it's clear that the campaign to market "21st century bacon" for enhanced flavour and convenience is set to continue with a vengeance. Meanwhile, the market's traditional big spenders, the Danes, launched a new, whacky campaign this week and the Dutch and Brits will inevitably follow with similar messages as a new propaganda war bombards shoppers. But might it also be opportune for the big three suppliers to pool part of their resources and promote the great product generically? That idea has been talked about in the past, and it's been tried in the catering sector, only for a few blinkered Brits to refuse to play ball in the retail arena. Time for an intelligent rethink? {{OPINION }}

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