As part of a new advertising campaign, six Wienermobiles driven by two-person teams will be racing around the country this summer in a road rally you can track on wienermobilerun.com.
“People have interacted with our Wienermobiles for decades,” said a spokesman for wiener-maker Oscar Mayer. “Now we have the tools for people to really, really interact with them.”
Each team’s Wienermobile will have a different name and its own hashtag. Not only can you really, really follow the race, you can really, really sign up to become a “team member,” with a chance to receive an official Wienermobile T-shirt.
But wait, there’s more. You also can read blogs from actual Wienermobile drivers. (Sample blog posted by Hot Diggity Holly: “Lisa and I sure have been some lucky dogs to have spent the last half of our tour with the Wienermobile in franktastic places in this great country!”)
Having never personally interacted with a replica of a hot dog attached to the top of a GMC W-series chassis with Pontiac Firebird taillights, I’m not sure which car I’ll back. It’s hard to choose between AutoBuhn, SPEEDYWIENER, BornToBun, DriftDog, HellOnBuns and Bunderstruck.
Then there’s the matter of drivers.
Sometimes Wienermobiles have been driven by notables such as former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and the even funnier Dave Barry. Jon Stewart once took the wheel of the 27-foot long wiener on wheels and immediately drove it through the Lincoln Tunnel, smirking all the way.
But the official Wienermobile drivers, known as “Hotdoggers,” all are recent college graduates selected from a pool of 2,000 applicants … which certainly underscores the value of getting that degree, not to mention providing proud parents the chance to boast about “my son, the Wienermobile driver.”
And, while I’m sure they all have enviable safety records, driving a Wienermobile is a serious business not without its hazards.
In 2002, a Wienermobile was stopped for driving too close to the Pentagon, which still bore the scars of 9/11. The drivers eventually were released and a police spokesperson declared, presumably with a straight face, “The hot dog posed no threat.”
And Hotdoggers were arrested twice for speeding in a small town in Texas, giving editors everywhere the opportunity to write headlines such as: “Cops ketchup with Wienermobile.” Which many editors did.
With relish.
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