From an innocent social media typo to Roar Bacon T-shirts, you really can’t make up the story of how the St. Louis Blues’ new motto has galvanized a “hungry” fan base.
Back on November 4, the St. Louis Blues mounted a furious 6-5 road comeback in overtime over the Chicago Blackhawks in the rivals’ first meeting of the season. The Blues’ Instagram account wanted to alert their followers that the team had “roared back.” Their phone’s autocorrect feature had other ideas, and the hashtag began nationally trending – Roar Bacon was born.
So Blues fans would have their fun, make some memes and move on, right? Not quite.
From a pig’s visit to the Blues locker room to Roar Bacon-themed menu items at home games, the Blues kept riding the wave of #RoarBacon – and the team kept responding. When the Blues battled back in Chicago on Sunday in a 3-2 win to take a 2-1 series lead in their first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs matchup, it marked the Blues’ third road comeback over the Blackhawks this season – the third chapter in the Roar Bacon saga.
So Roar Bacon is more than just a funny motto – it’s a rallying cry that defines the composure these Blues need to eliminate the Stanley Cup champions and make a run at the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. And if we know anything about St. Louis-Chicago rivalries, there’s no other team that the Notes would rather beat on their way to it.
After going viral early in the season, #RoarBacon has been channeled more and more by Blues fans during the playoffs. The postseason’s first week saw more than 900K impressions on Twitter for the delicious hashtag and around 640K alone during Sunday’s Game 3 comeback.
Source: Sample data from Keyhole.co
Social media celebrities are taking notice, with ESPN’s Darren Rovell showing off the new Roar Bacon T-Shirt on Fanatics:
An autocorrected social post by @StLouisBlues turned Roar Back into Roar Bacon. New T-shirt for sale (via @Fanatics) pic.twitter.com/oAf7alfGFf
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 19, 2016
After it tapered off following November, it’s no surprise to see the uptick in search popularity for the term Roar Bacon as the Blues show their grit again in these playoffs.
Roar Bacon isn’t completely precluded to the land of The Gateway Arch. Among the 13.5K Google searches made for the motto in November, well over half came from outside the St. Louis area. So the #RoarBacon fever is spreading, and folks across the nation want to know its origin.
Call it sports’ most successful Internet typo if you want, or a quirky motto that induces stomach growling. But for the St. Louis Blues and their fans, Roar Bacon has evolved from an early season Internet trend into a motto that is defining their Stanley Cup run.
Roar Bacon t-shirts are for sale on Fanatics.com in Ladies, Men & Kids sizes
