It's not exactly the kind of job you rush home to tell your parents about. But that didn't stop Brad Davies from signing on. "I just wasn't ready to start graduate school or become an investment banker," Davies says. "Nothing sounded better to me than getting paid to drive all over the United States in a hot dog."
And not just any hot dog. Equipped with six captain's chairs, a CB radio, a 32-inch television and a sausage-shaped dashboard, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile weighs 5 tons and stands 10½ feet high. With his driving partner, Kimberly Bow, a George Washington U. graduate, Davies has visited 36 states and logged 40,000 miles. Along the way, they have made hundreds of promotional appearances for Oscar Mayer. These range from elementary schools, where the kids get to explore the wiener-on-wheels, to a stop in Providence, R.I., where they helped collect food for a Salvation Army food drive.
As one of 12 drivers selected from 1,500 applicants, Davies finished his Stanford classes two weeks early to attend Hot Dog High in Madison, Wis. After a two-week crash course in public relations, interviews, corporate history and some driver training (it's not easy to park a 27-foot frankfurter), Davies and his partner set off for their yearlong adventure.
Although the drivers are faxed their promotional schedules a month in advance, there are frequent changes. "We have a cell phone, so we've had to whip a few U-turns on the highway. We're paid to be flexible," Davies says.
Hauling buns for a living did cause a few heads to turn, but the only time Davies ran into trouble was in Boston, when the Wiener-mobile nearly got lodged in a tunnel during rush hour. "We saw the low clearance sign and stopped short because we knew it would be close," Davies says. "But we tied up traffic for a while and got a $200 ticket." Then there was the time in Seattle when he woke up to find that someone had wrapped the entire Wienermobile in Saran Wrap and left a note: "Thought we'd try to keep your hot dog fresh."
Davies will embark on more mundane employment this fall as a health care consultant in San Francisco. But he has relished the ride. "My main observation of people in America is that rich or poor, purple hair or brown, Lexus or semi-truck, they are hardworking and kind," he says. "And they all like the Wienermobile."
-- Blake Hallanan, '76
