If you were born between 1981 and 1996 you are a millennial. No matter how hard I try to fight it. Generally speaking, we hear a lot about millennials doing things that will affect future generations. Add another to that list, it seems millennials are taking the brunt for the decline in the use of...mayonaisse. The destruction of American society may never end.

The Philadelphia Magazine had a whole article on it. In a world turned upside down by the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and two World Wars, we needed to come together, be united, rally behind a collective vision of what it meant to be an American: You lived in a single-family house, you drove a station wagon, you wore bowling shirts and blue jeans, and you slathered mayonnaise on everything from BLTs to burgers to pastrami on rye. How do you think “Hold the mayo” became a saying? There was always mayo, and if you were some kind of deviant who didn’t want it, you had to say so out loud.

That's not the case anymore. Now when we attend a family BBQ you'll see lots of choices to top your burger or hot dog with. Many kinds of ketchup, mustards, relishes, salsa, but we don't often see mayo on that table anymore. Millennials are turning away from mayonnaise and toward anything that makes them look more worldly and less, you know, Forrest Gumpish.

They're showing off their world citizenship by insisting upon "kefir and ajvar and chimichurri and gochujang" instead. This graphic from statisa.com shows big mayo took a slight hit between 2014 and 2015.  Business Insider gave us these facts about mayo: according to Euromonitor, mayonnaise sales fell 6.7% in the US between 2012 and 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal reports that brands like Hellmann's and Kraft have had to slash prices to keep shoppers interested, with mayonnaise prices falling 0.6% from the first quarter of 2017 to 2018, as overall packaged-food prices increased by 1.6%, according to Nielsen data.

So have millennials driven a stake through the pasty white jiggling blob we put on our BLTs? Not quite but the lack of sales are keeping 'BIG MAYO' on its toes. Last week, Kraft Heinz (the maker of both Kraft mayonnaise and Miracle Whip), emphasized its "innovation pipeline" in a call with investors, highlighting the recent launches of new Lunchables flavors, Just Crack an Egg, and Heinz Real Mayonnaise.

Twitter lost its mind when Heinz debuted mayoketchup— which is exactly what it sounds like — in April. And, Hellmann's has been expanding its ketchup offerings, debuting "real" ketchup sweetened with honey earlier this year.

Unlike my generational kin, I proudly enjoy mayo. Just not ice cream that is flavored like it...

 

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