Hot Diggity Dog! The Wienermobile turns 70

LAS VEGAS — Katie Shroeder got her first glimpse of the slick tan, red and yellow beast when she was a waitress in Kansas. Grabbing a once-in-a-lifetime chance, she tracked it for 60 miles until it stopped.

Shroeder's chase two years ago had caught the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and for now at least, her calling.

"I was so obsessed. I started sending letters on it," she said of aspiring to work the wiener.

Now she is Katie Shroeder, hotdogger, or — for those outside the wiener loop — a driver of the Wienermobile.

Oscar Mayer's pioneering mobile marketing gimmick turns 70 this year. The company created the Wienermobile in 1936 to transport its spokesman among grocery stores.

The original was a 13-foot-long metal hot dog on wheels with an open cockpit in the center and rear, so the hotdogger could pop up. Hot dog whistles were given out starting in 1951, and many people still show up at Wienermobile events looking for the whistles. The 1952 version of the Wienermobile is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

The Wienermobile has evolved with the times. Now, it's 27 feet long and boasts a GPS navigation system, six mustard- and ketchup-colored seats and a V-8 engine.

There actually are six Wienermobiles. Two hotdoggers are assigned to each, taking turns driving and living on the road for a year, traveling to promotional events and listening to that familiar jingle, over and over.

The jingle has progressed, too. There is the classic that surely has taught millions of children to spell bologna, and the wiener jingle. In 1998, a Spanish jingle was added. Each Wienermobile has a CD of the wiener jingle being sung in 21 different styles ranging from rap to country. Shroeder and her partner, Lindsay Brant, swear they never get sick of "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener ... " ringing in their ears.

So just how do you get to be the driver of a traffic-stopping, pop-culture icon?

Oscar Mayer recruits at college campuses, looking for outgoing, independent, trustworthy (probably so no one steals the Wienermobile) graduating seniors willing to spend a year inside an oversized hot dog.

More than 1,000 people apply each year, according to Ed Roland, Oscar Mayer's mobile marketing manager.

"Twelve lucky ones cut the mustard," he said.

Those 12 head to Hot Dog High in Madison, Wis., where they are instructed in everything from crisis training to how to drive the dog.

Brant, 23, graduated from Penn State University last year, and two weeks later was in Hot Dog High.

"Just seeing the looks on people's faces when we drive into town is just priceless," she said. "There's always people inviting us over for dinner."

She estimates she's heard the jingle a thousand times a day, but insists she never once has thought about tossing the CD out the window and running over it with the 14,000-pound Wienermobile.