The Iowa Pork Producers Association’s viral “Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon” marketing initiative with Iowa State football players is adding a new element: Linebacker Alec Cook. Through an NIL (name, image, likeness) deal, Cook joins fellow Cyclones Myles Purchase, Tyler Moore, Tommy Hamann and Caleb Bacon, encouraging Iowans to purchase pork products, and of course cook more ham and bacon. 

A new 30 second video featuring the five players launched on Wednesday and will be used in ads on social media.

The Iowa Pork Producers’ original social media post featuring a photo of Purchase, Moore, Hamann and Bacon with several pounds of ham and bacon has received more than 2.6 million views on X (formerly Twitter) and the initiative quickly garnered statewide and national media attention. Raygun has sold hundreds of Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon t-shirts and Iowa Pork has given away nearly 9,000 posters featuring the original photo.

“We are so overjoyed with the great success of the “Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon” campaign and love that we’re able to encourage people to Cook Moore Hamann Bacon as well,” said IPPA President Trish Cook, a pig farmer from Buchanan County. “We had hoped it would go viral and it did in a very big way. Supporting these players and the We Will Collective has been a rewarding experience, and we’re helping the food pantries in their hometowns with donations of delicious and nutritious Iowa pork.”

IPPA is donating $4,000 worth of pork to food pantries in the hometowns of Purchase, Moore, Hamann and Bacon, on behalf of each player. Bacon presented the Lake Mills Food Shelf in Lake Mills, Iowa with their donation on Oct. 21.

As part of this new phase of the initiative, an additional $1,000 worth of pork will be provided for each food pantry, as well to Cook’s selection, the Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha. That totals $9,000 worth of pork, equating to 12,000 servings, to help fight food insecurity in each player’s hometown.

“Thank you to Iowa pork producers for giving us the chance to use our last names to promote the swine industry,” said Cook, a redshirt freshman linebacker from Omaha. “It was a lot of fun to work together while also helping out our local communities.”

Iowa is the No. 1 state in the nation for pork production and nearly 150,000 Iowans are employed by the pork industry.

Another new video, featuring an additional Cyclone football player, will be added to the “Purchase/Cook Moore Hamann Bacon” initiative soon.