The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, parked outside City Hall in Philadelphia, vehicle joins the first-ever, special edition Wienermobile Food Truck that serves Oscar Mayer Selects Beef Franks on Wednesday, July 20, 2011. This week marks the 75th anniversary of the world-famous Wienermobile. (Mark Stehle/AP Images for Oscar Mayer)
Ever wish you were an Oscar Mayer Wiener? Is that what you’d truly like to be? Well frankly that’s still pretty unlikely. What you can do, however, is sneak a peek at the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile as it travels across Cape Cod next week.
Children and adults alike are being invited to stop by as the Wienermobile makes stops at Shaw’s Supermarkets in South Yarmouth from noon until 7 PM and in East Falmouth from noon through 4 PM next Thursday and Friday respectively.
The ubiquitous vehicle is one of six that makes its rounds across the country touting Oscar Mayer meat-based products and bringing smiles to the faces of all whom it encounters. This particular Wienermobile is being driven by a friendly millennial who goes by the name of Connie Salami who was chosen for his post from a pool of thousands of recent college graduates from around the U.S.
Wienermobile operators, or Hotdoggers as Oscar Mayer refers to them, are selected right out of college for one-year positions crisscrossing the United States in a giant travelling hot dog. The vehicle is weighed down with boxes of toy whistles shaped as replicas of the Wienermobile, known as Wienerwhistles, which the Hotdoggers are authorized to hand out at their discretion.
Since it was first unveiled in 1936, the Wienermobile has gone through nearly a dozen iterations, with many of the retired versions currently residing in automotive museums across the country. According to American Eats, the Wienermobile includes a voice-activated GPS navigation device, an audio center with a wireless microphone, and horn that plays the Oscar Mayer Wiener Jingle in 21 different genres from Cajun, to Rap, to Bossa Nova.
Engine Building Magazine reports that the 11 feet high, 8 feet wide and 27 feet long Wienermobile contains a hot dog-shaped dashboard, a Gull-wing door with automatic retractable steps, a removable bunroof, an exterior back-up camera, condiment-splattered carpet, blue sky ceiling art, a smiling front grill, space for 11,000 Wiener Whistles as well as storage capacity for 27,000 hot dogs.
The Wienermobile has its own Twitter account (with more than 24,000 followers), and has spawned the development of Wienermobile Hot Wheels cars, plush toys, hats, virtual reality headsets, t-shirts, posters, and of course the “Wienie Beanie” bean-bag toy.
The folks at Oscar Mayer also give the public the opportunity to win the use of the vehicle and its driver for the day. Winners, and three of their friends not only get to travel in the hot dog car, but also receive one package of Oscar Mayer hot dogs, one package of hot dog buns, an assortment of condiments and one “Oscar Mayer” branded roller grill. In addition, the Wienermobile will visit the winner at his/her residence or an alternative location for a one-hour event.
If you thought the Wienermobile was the top-dog in travel options, here’s an opportunity to ketchup on what you have missing. Just this summer Oscar Mayer launched the three new Wienermobiles to the Wienerfleet, including the WienerMini, WienerRover, WienerCycle, and the WienerDrone.
The WienerMini is much like the traditional Wienermobile but constructed on the smaller BMW Mini Cooper frame. The Wiener Rover is a remote-controlled hot dog transport system, capable of traveling in excess of 50 miles per hour and delivering up to six warmed dogs and condiments.
The WienerCycle is really more moped than motorcycle, designed for urban travel the vehicle has a wiener side-car capable of holding eight warmed dogs and buns. Finally, the WienerDrone as you may have expected, is a drone that looks like a hot dog. It has a maximum flying altitude of 1,200 feet (the same as 2,400 hot dogs stacked end-to-end) and a payload off a single hot dog, designed for remote delivery.
Now that you know all the backstory, come and see the Wienermobile as it greets shopper at Shaw’s in South Yarmouth from noon until 7 PM on Thursday, August 31st and in East Falmouth from noon through 4 PM next Friday, September 1st.
By CapeCod.com Staff
