Hotdoggers Nick Osiecki and Stephanie Geidel drive the Wienermobile down Jolly Road in Lansing. The hotdoggers were on MSU
No other wienie in history has spread as many miles of smiles as the infamous “Lamborwienie” — the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
East Lansing got its chance to whistle at the wiener when the iconic phallic-shaped vehicle hot dogged across the area to recruit future “Hotdoggers” — Oscar Mayer’s spokespeople and driving team.
Nick Osiecki is driving the 27-foot-long hot dog through the Midwest for the next five months. A 2007 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Osiecki said his job is incomparable.
“I get up, I put on my wiener gear and I hop into a 27-foot-long hot dog,” 22-year-old Osiecki said. “I get stared at, smiled at, waved at, honked at for 24 hours. When you get in the Wienermobile, it’s really, really encouraging. We really never know what we’re getting ourselves into.”
Osiecki and his hotdoggin’ partner Stephanie Geidel have been in the East Lansing area since Sunday, and they will leave tonight after two promotional events — from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at Kroger, 4884 Marsh Road, in Okemos, and from 6-9 p.m. tonight at the Diversity Fair at Kellogg Center.
The promotion at Kroger will offer Lansing area residents a chance to vote for Oscar Mayer’s next commercial in the contest “Sing the Jingle, Be a Star.” Contestants have been narrowed down to 12 people ranging from age 8 to senior citizens.
At home, Geidel, 24, drives a Pontiac Sunfire, which is about 12 feet shorter than the Wienermobile’s length. Luckily, the Madison, Wis., police department gives Hotdoggers 40 hours of driver’s training with the long wienie.
Geidel said the hardest part about being a Hotdogger is finding a place to park the Wienermobile.
“Especially on campus at MSU,” she said.
Dan Howard, an employee at Fortress Comics & Games, 425 Albert Ave., saw the Wienermobile outside of his workplace at about noon Wednesday. And despite the vehicle’s bold appearance, Howard didn’t notice until a passer-by brought his attention outside.
“Somebody came in and said, ‘Is that your new ride outside?’” Howard said. “I opened up the door and I just said, ‘I got to get a picture on my phone.’”
As predicted, sometimes Geidel and Osiecki encounter some crude jokes regarding the shape of the Wienermobile.
“We try to stay away from those kinds of jokes,” Osiecki said. “We do get them. It’s not really the first thing most people say. We’ll get them down the highway, and we try to give them a Wienerwhistle and tell them to have a nice day.”
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