“When we’re hauling buns down the hotdog highway, we wear our meatbelts, not our seatbelts,” Zerka said.
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Part of the car’s charm is its unsubtle, hotdog-ified terms, where a sunroof becomes a “bun-roof.” “You’ve got to be on all the time.”Ĭonstant enthusiasm is vital when driving the Wienermobile, Zerka said. “As an Oscar Mayer Hotdogger, you’re the face of the company,” Kerr said. Her degree provided the public relations skills needed to meet thousands of people in the giant hotdog. Kerr sat behind the Wienermobile wheel after she graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2009 with a degree in strategic communication.
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Oscar Mayer trains Hotdoggers like Zerka for two weeks at the beginning of the summer after graduating college, said Rachel Kerr, an Oscar Mayer experiential marketing manager. “I happened to sit down next to one of the people I needed to to drive the Wienermobile.” “In college, they teach you it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” Zerka said. Zerka stumbled upon his post-college career after interning with Nabisco, where he met a former Hotdogger who led him to this opportunity.
OSCAR MAYER WIENERMOBILE DRIVERS
The incredible list of eccentricities surrounding life as a Hotdogger is endless: Zerka and the 12 other Wienermobile drivers attended training at a place called ‘Hot Dog High,’ at Oscar Mayer’s headquarters in Madison, Wis. “Saying, ‘I don’t have a Wiener Whistle’ is something you never say to anybody,” Zerka said.
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“No one’s ever upset to see the Wienermobile.”Īs a Hotdogger, Zerka waves and honks to scores of people on the road each day, along with the dozens more he greets at community engagement events.Īt malls, grocery stores and parades, Zerka gives curious folks a tour of the meat machine and doles out trinkets called “Wiener Whistles.” “We make magic and sell meat,” Zerka said of his time with Oscar Mayer. Zerka was one of 12 college graduates plucked from over 1,200 applicants across the country that Kraft hired to drive the Wienermobile. We are the Wienermobile, we’re here to make your day,” Zerka said. “We’re showing the people we’re Oscar Mayer.
OSCAR MAYER WIENERMOBILE DRIVER
Parked outside grocery stores around Minneapolis this week, a University of Minnesota graduate will haul a prize item: a 27-foot-long hotdog.Īfter graduating with a degree in business marketing education last May, University alumnus Joe Zerka hit the road working for Kraft Foods as a driver of the famed Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.