No, Bac-Os. Just ... no

A core truth of our world is imitation bacon bits are amazing. The original "fake meat", these things were constants in the 70s and 80s for some reason, maybe because shelf-stable real bacon pieces hadn’t been invented yet? Dunno - but canned ham was a thing for a long time, so - anyway, bacon bits are awesome. Second place to taco meat on the Wendy's Superbar.

And "Bac-Os" is what one says when one means little bits of brown soy made to taste somewhat like bacon. It appears that at some point in the late 70s the bigwigs at Bac-Os Corp. were riding so high on their success that they believed extending the brand to what I'm guessing are real (or fake???) bits of onions (as the amazingly-named On-Yos) and nuts (is soy a nut?) as Nut-Os was a killer idea. I couldn't get past the freaky anthropomorphic cabbage or Family Dollar Pam Dawber to pay much attention to the actual product description.

Fried onions and/or random nut-type things on a salad are indeed great ideas. But the real market for Bac-Os is really just cracking open the bottle and chugging some, so maybe that didn't translate to On-Nut-YoOs.

I was surprised to learn from Google's AI assistant I didn't ask to help me when I searched for more info on the Yo line that Bac-Os were discontinued in 2016 "due to unpopularity". This surprised me, because I was sure I had Bac-Os in my pantry right now. Turns out that's McCormick's Bac'n Pieces, which are apparently still popular enough to survive. And pro tip" look for the "Chips" variety if you can find them (I know where to find them, but I’m not telling). Blows "Bits" away.

Credit: Nostalgic X'er
Original Video: 1980s commercials volume 60