Hot dog company Oscar Mayer has “mustard” up the courage to provide consumers with an unconventional product that’s, frankly, sure to make sipping drinks much more interesting.
To celebrate the first anniversary of a viral video showing a New York baseball fan carving a hole in the center of a hot dog to then put into a cup of beer to sip his drink, Oscar Mayer is offering its own version of the wiener straw.
The Chicago-based company on Tuesday unveiled the Oscar Mayer hot dog straw, which is made of “a food-safe soft silicone,” the company said.
Though the viral video that inspired the product divided the internet, with some praising the man’s creativity and others being appalled, Oscar Mayer Associate Director Kelsey Rice said the company salutes “the brave man who paved the way to enjoy his hot dog as he wishes.”
“Taking inspiration from a classic Oscar Mayer dog, the silicone Hot Dog Straw is designed for optimal sipping, and we hope it brings a friendly reminder that we don’t need to take enjoying a delicious hot dog seriously,” Rice said in a news release.
The product’s humble origins stem from New York’s Yankee Stadium when social media personality and documentarian Nicolas Heller, better known as “New York Nico” across social media, captured the man using a hot dog as a straw on Aug. 22, 2022.
On Instagram, the video has about 50 million views, over 430,000 likes and more than 15,000 comments. Heller, who has 1.2 million Instagram followers, captioned the video “Wtf is going on at baseball games this year?”
On TikTok, the video has over 9 billion views and features social media users recording themselves making their own versions of the edible hot dog straw and others expressing their disgust at the creation, calling it a “violation.”
On Instagram, Oscar Mayer on Tuesday promoted the product with a video showing a man pulling the silicone Oscar Mayer Hot Dog Straw out of his jacket pocket and using it to sip a cup of beer at a baseball game surrounded by other onlookers.
“One year ago today, a legend made a hot dog into a straw at a baseball game. Today, @newyorknico helped us bring Oscar Mayer Hot Dog Straws to the world,” the Instagram caption said.
Though the Oscar Mayer video depicts a man who looks similar to the original hot dog straw creator in the 2022 video, the originator remains unnamed and has not officially stepped into the limelight to assert his claim to fame.
The straws are just one of Oscar Mayer’s hot-dog-inspired creations. The company is also known for its Frankmobile, a 27-foot-long, hot dog-shaped vehicle that has made various appearances at Chicago events this summer.
The straws are available for free on the Oscar Mayer website. They aren’t dishwasher or microwave safe and aren’t intended to be used to sip hot drinks, according to the company’s website.
To order your very own straw, visit oscarmayer.com/hotdogstraw.
