Another hoax!
Oscar Mayer Refuses to Send Hot Dogs to Marines
From David Emery,
Your Guide to Urban Legends and Folklore.
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Netlore Archive: Forwarded email urges 'patriots' to boycott Oscar Mayer hot dogs because the company allegedly refused to ship its products to U.S. Marines stationed in Iraq


Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: April 2007
Status: False
Analysis: See below


Email example contributed by Karen A., 24 April 2007:

Subject: Fwd: Oscar Meyer
Guess I will not be eating Oscar Meyer hot dogs any more!

Recently Marines in Iraq wrote to Oscar Meyer because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their hot dogs and to request that they send some of it to the troops there.

Oscar Meyer replied, telling the Marines thank you for their support of their business, but that Oscar Meyer does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of hot dogs.

So as not to offend Oscar Meyer, maybe we should not support them by buying any of their products!

As a war vet writing to fellow patriots, I feel we should get this out in the open. I know this war might not be very popular with some folks, but that doesn't mean we don't support the boys on the ground fighting street-to-street and house-to-house for what they and I believe is right.

If you feel the same as I do then pass this along, or you can discard it and no one will never know.

Thanks very much for your support. I know you'll all be there again when I deploy once more.

"Semper Fidelis."
Sgt Howard C. Wright
1st Force Recon Co
1st Plt PLT

PLEASE DON'T DELETE THIS ... ALLOW IT TO BE PASSED TO ALL IN MEMORY OF ALL THE TROOPS WHO HAVE DIED SO THAT WE MAY HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE TO SUPPORT THEM OR NOT!!!

Lt.Jason P. Stanley
WSI Fire/Rescue
D5 Camp Stryker

Comments: This is a copycat hoax. The text is a slightly modified version of a 2004 alert claiming that Starbucks refused to ship coffee to U.S. Marines in Iraq. Even the signature, "Sgt. Howard C. Wright," is the same in both messages. Sgt. Wright disavowed the earlier message in a statement made public three years ago. In the 2007 version, an anonymous prankster has simply replaced each reference to Starbucks with "Oscar Mayer."

Oscar Mayer brand products are manufactured by Kraft Foods Inc., which, far from refusing to support U.S. troops in Iraq, supplies a wide variety of packaged foods to armed services personnel through its commissary program. The company has issued no statements critical of the war in Iraq or the U.S. troops fighting there.

It's bad enough, trying to get people to do a little checking, before they start spamming e-mails all over the net. When you find one this preposterous, you have to wonder how unintelligent you have to be, to believe such rubbish.

quote:

Originally posted by Torch8306:

It's bad enough, trying to get people to do a little checking, before they start spamming e-mails all over the net. When you find one this preposterous, you have to wonder how unintelligent you have to be, to believe such rubbish.

Fact checking is so easy too. As this hoax mentions, this is the Starbucks hoax where they used the same Sgt Howard C. Wright as the originator. I always start by googling the names when I fact check a chain e-mail request to boycott any company.

quote:

Originally posted by Torch8306:
It's bad enough, trying to get people to do a little checking, before they start spamming e-mails all over the net. When you find one this preposterous, you have to wonder how unintelligent you have to be, to believe such rubbish.

I agree....

ME TOO.

Yeah, what you guys said.

DITTO

Hmm. If I packed a hot dog and sent it to Iraq through the mails, how rotten would it be by the time it arrived ?

I find it hard to believe that Oscar Meyer doesn't support any American in their endeavors and certainly not the military.



How do you think we won the Cold War? We had hot dogs to entice the early Soviet and Chi-Com ambassadors. When they went home they told the others about the "hot dog" and the rest is history.

You know the song...

quote:

Originally posted by JakobA_DK:
Hmm. If I packed a hot dog and sent it to Iraq through the mails, how rotten would it be by the time it arrived ?

But! With that rotten "hot dog" you could catch a catfish in the Tigris or Euphrates and make a mighty fine meal.

quote:

Originally posted by Torch8306:
It's bad enough, trying to get people to do a little checking, before they start spamming e-mails all over the net. When you find one this preposterous, you have to wonder how unintelligent you have to be, to believe such rubbish.

Must agree with my friend Torch on this one. When I received that e-mail this morning, I Googled it and sent the response to every one on the e-mail list. There must have been 50 on that list. Some of those folks on the list did not accept my e-mail.
From that one e-mail I received, just think how much damage will be done to a company, that at least supports the troops, if the other recipients do not read the e-mail I sent them. People react, others pay.

Personally, I think "SGT Wright" is a marketing weenie with a firm contracted by competitors of both Kraft and Starbucks. His little scheme has been blown, and he will now spend eternity hung by wrist shackles in a dank dungeon. Right next to the guy who last used "new and improved" in an ad campaign....

quote:

I think "SGT Wright" is a marketing weenie

Good point!

During Vietnam in 1969, we sent $30.00 to one of the guys father who worked at Old El Paso and ask if he would send a a case of Japlena peppers, when he mentioned it at work the Company sent us ten (10) cases free of charge.

Thanks for clearing that up about Starbucks and Oscar Meyer. I'd heard it both ways about Starbucks, but not Oscar Meyer.

quote:

Originally posted by Torch8306:
It's bad enough, trying to get people to do a little checking, before they start spamming e-mails all over the net. When you find one this preposterous, you have to wonder how unintelligent you have to be, to believe such rubbish.

I don't know ...
But I always thought my older brother was a pretty smart guy ... but he sent this to me earlier this year.

And don't forget how your state has purchased 30 new police cruisers and mandating that all officers write a speeding ticket every 20 minutes so they can collect $9million in taxes in a month!!!