You’ve probably passed the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile on the road at some point in your life: The hot dog on wheels that has been visiting fans across America for decades.
On Friday, children and their parents packed in around the Wienermobile outside of the Heinz History Center in the Strip District, visibly relishing the fuel-powered frank’s latest appearance in Pittsburgh.
But unlike its namesake, the Wienermobile’s employees are anything but mass-produced.
Today’s driver, Connor Wolff, from Murrysville, completed a process as selective as Ivy League admissions to become one of Oscar Mayer’s “Hotdoggers.”
Mr. Wolff, 29, graduated with a bachelor’s from Penn State University in 2018, and a Master's in Business Administration in 2024. A lifelong hot dog aficionado, he applied to spend a year driving the Wienermobile in late 2023 on a whim after seeing an ad for the position on Instagram.
What Mr. Wolff didn’t know at the time was that Oscar Mayer recruits heavily from his alma mater. Three days after applying, he got an email.
“‘We’re going to be up there next week, do you want us to pick you up?”
“It was a stroke of fate,” he said. “It was the first time I saw the Wienermobile, I got to ride it, and just got absolutely hooked.”
Just 12 hotdoggers were selected out of more than 7,000 applicants this past year, he said, an acceptance rate way below 1%. Mr. Wolff was keen to point out that more people have been to space than have driven the Wienermobile since the program began in 1988.
Hotdoggers are either assigned names or can pick one themselves, like “Relish Riley” or “Grillmaster Matthew.” Mr. Wolff came pre-packaged with his own nickname, “Captain Glizzy,” which his drill sergeants bestowed on him during his stint in the Army due to his love of frankfurters.
Mr. Wolff’s training started in June, when he attended “Hot Dog High” in Madison, Wis. Oscar Mayer instructors teach the new team the history of the Wienermobile and how to work with the media.
Each Hotdogger is processed to become a micro-influencer for Oscar Mayer, complete with red-and-yellow company uniforms and their own personalized Instagram accounts. By drawing crowds wherever it goes, the Wienermobile also drives sales in those locations, Mr. Wolff said.
“It is a pretty direct correlation that you see Oscar Mayer, you see the 27-foot iconic hot dog, and it just gets your appetite going,” he said.
Perhaps most importantly, former Madison police officers with decades of experience are on hand to teach the Hotdoggers how to drive what will become their mobile home for the next 12 months.
Mr. Wolff said that the Wienermobile responded surprisingly well to Pittsburgh’s infamous twisting roads with tight bends.
“The handling is amazing, we sit up high, we get great visibility,” he said. “The turn radius is not nearly as large as you’d think. It’s honestly weird to drive a normal car after this — I’m gonna feel like I’m flying in my Ford Escape.”
Mr. Wolff made sure to pass through Murrysville on his way to Pittsburgh, where he parked in his driveway and visited his family.
Contrary to popular belief, there are six Wienermobiles, not just one, each with a pair of Hotdoggers and an assigned region of the country: East, Midwest, Central, South, Southeast, or West.
Mr. Wolff spent the first half of his year in the South with “Aioli Akira,” and switched off in January to drive in the East with his current partner, Sarah “Kraut” Oney, a graduate of the University of Georgia who said her dream job was to “see the road through the lens of a hot dog.”
In all, Mr. Wolff has been to 22 states, hardly ever staying in the same place for more than a few days at a time. He and Ms. Oney were scheduled to make an appearance at Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade before rolling on to wherever they’re needed next.
The Wienermobile’s interior is accordingly built for the long haul, with six cushy seats and plenty of space. There’s also a TV on the wall in the back that usually displays Oscar Mayer ads, but Mr. Wolff, a devout Nittany Lion, commandeered it to watch Penn State football games in the fall.
Most of the time when the Wienermobile is parked, Mr. Wolff and Ms. Oney are busy passing out tiny plastic “Wiener Whistles” and taking pictures for visitors. But when it’s warm out, Mr. Wolff likes to climb out of the “bun roof” and sit on top of the vehicle to take in his surroundings.
“I love the joy that it spreads — everyone just comes up and immediately starts smiling,” he said. “It’s nice that I get to use a business sense and also feel like I’m making a beneficial impact, which is what I was looking for coming out of the MBA.”
Oscar Mayer is currently in its final round of interviews to pick the next class of Hotdoggers, at which point Mr. Wolff and the rest of Hotdogger Class 37 will become expired meat, so to speak.
Many Hotdoggers go on to work for Oscar Mayer’s parent company, Kraft Heinz, which Mr. Wolff has considered since he could utilize his MBA specialization of management consulting in corporate finance. Others have worked in the dental industry, the travel industry, and the Green Bay Packers’ social media team.
Mr. Wolff’s takeaway for his future? Once a Hotdogger, always a Hotdogger.
“The possibilities are really endless because our alumni core of Hotdoggers are all spread out in drastically different things, and they’re always trying to hire [fresh] Hotdoggers,” he said.
First Published: March 15, 2025, 2:42 p.m.
Updated: March 15, 2025, 9:07 p.m.
