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Enlarge ImageScreenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET
What if there was an app like Tinder, but the main thing you had to worry about in your quest for love (or hookups) was a mutual interest in bacon? That’s the idea behind Sizzl, a promotional-stunt app by bacon maker Oscar Mayer.
Sorry, bacon-loving Android users, you can’t participate. The app is for iOS alone.
The only option for using the app is to sign up with Facebook and hand over some of your profile information. I wondered if my profile photo showing the three members of fictional hard-rock band Spinal Tap huddled around a Les Paul would improve or hinder my chances of finding my perfect bacon match.
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The app, released Wednesday, asks you a series of questions about your bacon likes and dislikes. Would you split the last piece of bacon with your date? Do you like your bacon crispy? Do you prefer pork or turkey bacon? There is no vegetarian option. To prevent confusion, the app refers to the poultry version as “turkey bacon” and the pork version as “bacon-bacon.”
The next step is to dive into the interface, where you indicate how much “sizzle” you’re feeling for each profile photo by holding your finger down on a heart-shaped button. The screen pulses with bacon-y colors the longer you hold it. This is more fun than Tinder’s swiping functions. The other option is to nix the person and move on to the next.
According to my unscientific observations, the profiles on the app are currently about 95 percent male. Perhaps the gender spread will even out over time.
People with mutual matches can talk to each other. In my short time using the app, I failed to find a suitable bacon match, even though I “sizzled” everybody. I blame my Spinal Tap profile photo.
As far as meat-related marketing stunts go, Sizzl ranks pretty high. A lot of effort went into parodying the Tinder-style dating apps that are so popular right now. Does it top the odor-wafting bacon alarm clock of 2014 or the all-terrain, hot-dog-delivering Wiener Rover from earlier this year? I guess that depends on whether you find your true bacon love through the app.
