Cartoon stick figure riding a vehicle shaped like a hot dog while blowing out of a whistle also shaped like a hot dog — representing a blog post about Wienermobile configuration mark trademark registrations.

Trademark: Wienermobile

First Used: 1936

Current Owner: KRAFT FOODS GROUP BRANDS LLC (Oscar Mayer) [1]

Trademark Type: non-traditional trademark; trade dress; configuration mark

Primarily Associated With: toys, namely, whistles [2][3]; and entertainment services featuring music, comedy routines and souvenir give aways [4]

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [5]:

We recently learned about Hot Dog trademarks, and how the phrase “hot dog” can and can’t function as a trademark depending on how it is used. Today, let’s learn about one of the greatest hot dog trademarks of them all: WIENERMOBILE® [6].

Oscar Mayer’s Wienermobile vehicle was created in 1936, when Carl Mayer, the nephew of Oscar Mayer, came up with a simple but unforgettable advertising idea: put a giant hot dog on wheels and drive it through the streets of Chicago. The first Wienermobile vehicle was a 13-foot metal hot dog built by the General Body Company of Chicago, with open cockpits in the center and rear. It was designed to promote Oscar Mayer “German-style Wieners,” but it quickly became something more than a moving billboard. By the 1940s, the Wienermobile vehicle had already become a familiar sight across parts of the Midwest and East.

The Wienermobile vehicle has changed many times over the decades. It was taken off the road during World War II because of gas rationing, returned in the 1950s with a new fleet, and later evolved into the more familiar hot-dog-and-bun design. The program was briefly discontinued in the late 1970s, but public interest helped bring it back for the vehicle’s 50th anniversary in 1986. Since then, the Wienermobile vehicle has remained one of the most recognizable promotional vehicles in the United States, driven by “Hotdoggers” who tour the country in a fleet of giant hot dogs on wheels. Oscar Mayer even briefly renamed it the “Frankmobile” in 2023, but the classic Wienermobile name quickly returned. The Wienermobile vehicle has inspired many other brands over the years, resulting in some wild vehicle designs like the Peepsmobile (also a non-traditional trademark!).

The Wienermobile vehicle also helped launch one of Oscar Mayer’s most beloved giveaways: the Wienermobile Whistle (or just “Wiener Whistle” for short). First developed in the early 1950s, the small plastic whistle was originally handed out during Wienermobile appearances before being included in packages of Oscar Mayer Wieners in 1958. By the 1964 New York World’s Fair, fans could buy one from a vending machine for two cents. The whistle became a small pop culture artifact of its own, appearing in 1960s Oscar Mayer commercials, receiving special editions over the years, and even showing up in the 1994 movie The Santa Clause. Today, you can still get one for free by visiting the famous Wienermobile in person and asking a "Hot Dogger" (the official drivers) for one.

Kraft is also the owner of other iconic food trademarks you may recognize. Check out our posts on MIRACLE WHIP®, COOL WHIP®, and JELL-O® to learn more!