It’s 60-hotdogs long and 24-hotdogs tall and when she finishes her yearlong journey, Columbus native Sarah Oney will have driven with her copilot one of the six famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles around 20,000 miles to more than 200 events across the midwestern United States.
Wienermobile coordinator Emily Schmitt explained why Oney is among the 12 Wienermobile drivers, called Hotdoggers, selected out of approximately 7,000 applicants for the 2024-25 season.
“Sarah had a lot of people to go up against, but I think it was clear from the moment we met her that she absolutely has sunshine energy,” Schmitt told the Ledger-Enquirer. “… When she was going through the process, it was so clear that she was ready to take on a role that just really spreads joy because she really is joyful. … Sarah’s just begun the job, but she’s already made so much magic along the way.”
Oney, 23, was educated K-12 in the Muscogee County School District. After attending Britt David Magnet Academy, St. Elmo Center for the Gifted and Blackmon Road Middle School, she graduated from Columbus High School in 2019. Then she earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of Georgia in 2023.
When the Ledger-Enquirer interviewed Oney on June 24, she was in Cleveland, Ohio, her seventh day on the road driving a Wienermobile with copilot Stephen Harrison, a Boston College graduate from Pennsylvania.
“The little moments are really what’s the most exciting,” she said. “Whenever we’re on the highway or any road anywhere, you look out the window, and you’re guaranteed to see people looking at you and taking pictures of the Wienermobile and just smiling. It’s really that immediate joy.”
Wienermobiles are Oscar Mayer’s iconic promotional vehicles that look like giant hotdogs on wheels. They travel to various events in their region, where they hand out Wiener Whistles, other company merchandise and product coupons — but no actual hotdogs or bologna sandwiches to eat, due to complications of preparing and keeping such a supply and complying with health and safety codes.
“We’re a car that looks like food,” Oney said. “but we don’t have any food in there. … Some of the events that we go to will have people making Oscar Mayer hotdogs, but that’s not something that has to happen. … We’re there to promote our incredible brand and just try to spark smiles.”
During college, Oney’s experience as a videography and construction intern in Mexico and an orientation leader at UGA motivated her to seek more opportunities to make a big difference in little ways.
“I believe we over complicate the basics by underestimating the power of small moments,” she wrote in her Wienermobile application. “Chain reactions of small moments have the power to change the world.”
No wonder Oney cried when she was selected as a Hotdogger.
“This was something I wanted to do so bad, and this was genuinely my dream, as funny as that may sound,” she said. “I got intimidated to apply because of the amount of applications they received, … and never in a million years did I think I would be able to do this. Just the fact that they saw that I would do an amazing job, just brought me to tears. I consider myself very lucky.”
This year’s Hotdogger training started June 2 and lasted for two weeks in Madison, Wisconsin. They learned about Oscar Mayer, their Wienermobile, how to drive it, how to work well with their copilot and interact well with the public.
Hotdoggers are assigned to one of six regions for six months. Then they get a new copilot and a new region for the next six months.
Oney already has seen this job strengthen her communication skills and her ability to handle stressful situations.
“I’m just a huge people-person, and you interact with every single type of person,” she said. “… You’re driving a 60-hotdogs-long (and 24-hotdogs-tall, which is 27 feet long and 11 feet high) vehicle, so you kind of have to account for all these things you never had to account for before, and you’re just becoming way more flexible and way more adaptable.”
After only one week on the road, Oney already was convinced she made the right decision.
“When I’m driving down the road, that reaffirms why I wanted to do this so bad,” she said. “You can see smiles being brought to people’s faces. You can see people light up, and I wouldn’t trade that feeling for the world.”
An excellent example came during the first event for Oney and Harrison as Hotdoggers driving their Wienermobile.
While they handed out Wiener Whistles and interacted with customers in the parking lot of a grocery store in South Bend, Indiana, they met a woman who was celebrating her birthday. She asked for a ride in the Wienermobile — and they eagerly granted her wish.
“That was just the icing on top of that day,” Oney said. “Yes, it’s the job, but it’s also the moments outside of the job that we get to create, the magical moments. She was so overjoyed, and it was awesome. It was just a five-minute ride, but you see how much that means to people.”
Oney received extra motivation to make that kind of positive impact when, as she prepared to leave Madison for her first event in South Bend, she met a former Hotdogger who drove a Wienermobile 60 years ago.
“He said he loved it,” she recalled. “He said it was a great experience, and he was so excited to see it in person again. It was just a sweet, full-circle moment.
“We hear all the time the Wienermobile is an American icon. It has so much attachment to people, and to start the journey with someone coming up to me and saying this has been something that existed in his life for 60 years, and now that it exists in mine, it’s just awesome.”
Parking is the most challenging part for Oney as a Hotdogger driving a Wienermobile.
“I used to drive a Kia Soul, and that in comparison to a Wienermobile is very different when it comes to parking,” she said. “You always want to make sure there’s room for other people to park. You don’t want to take up too much space.”
Hotdoggers are methodically trained to drive their Wienermobile.
“It’s definitely intimidating at first, but they make sure we’re very prepared,” Oney said. “We drive Penske trucks before we graduate to be able to drive the Wienermobile. Then we have all these courses we have to pass through, and we do a driving test for two hours to make sure we’re equipped to be on the road. … Now, it’s like my personal vehicle, and I’ve very confident when I drive it.”
Any accidents?
“Never even scratched our buns,” she said with a laugh. “Never going to.”
Hotdoggers receive a $35,600 salary, expenses for gas and hotels, plus a food stipend. Their weekly schedule has them driving on Mondays, off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, then working events Thursdays through Sundays.
Oney isn’t sure exactly the career she wants to pursue after her Wienermobile experience, but she is certain about what it will entail.
“It will always involve people, and it will always involve creating things that make other people happy, and that will be the center of everything I do for the rest of my life,” she said. “I’ll keep my door open, my hands open, because things will find me, … but it definitely will be something in the entertainment field or content creation or marketing, a creative field.”
Until then Oney and Harrison will drive their Wienermobile in the July 4 America’s Birthday Parade in St. Louis, Missouri.
“It’s going to be incredible,” she said. “My copilot, he’s going to be riding in the bun roof, that’s what our sunroof is called, and I’ll be driving and waving at everyone. I’m really looking forward to it.”
You can follow Oney’s Wienermobile journey on her Instagram account titled by her Oscar Mayer Hotdogger nickname: @om_sarahkraut.
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Ledger-Enquirer.
