Oscar Mayer, the third Oscar Mayer to head the famous meat products company, died at age 95 on Monday. Condolences to his family.

This brings to mind the jingle, of course (“My bologna has a first name …”), but also a little-known fact … so little-known that it will be news even to many New Piggers …

New Pig owns the toll-free number

1-800-HOT-DOGS

(1-800-468-3647)

Yes, with a “D” that goes with the number “3.”

Image © JLV Image Works – Fotolia.com

Mind you, the phone number that we promote everywhere (and have even registered as a trademark) is 1-800-HOT-HOGS® (1-800-468-4647), with an “H” that goes with the number “4.”

But it’s possible to mis-hear or mis-remember “HOT HOGS” as “HOT DOGS,” so years ago, after we became aware of this, we acquired the “HOT DOGS” phone number as well, so we would still get those calls.

By the way, I feel free to point out this tiny flaw in our timeless toll-free number (a) because 1-800-HOT-HOGS has generated countless laughs and smiles, and (b) because yours truly happens to be the Pigger who originally suggested 1-800-HOT-HOGS as a phone number just about 24 years ago (speaking of little-known facts!). I got a $200 prize for that! Nice money now and even better back then!

Anyway, our having 1-800-HOT-DOGS is all part of our customer service! If our customers encounter a common problem that we can fix, we’ll fix it!

We do get the occasional call over the HOT-DOGS number asking for hot dogs or hot dog vending equipment (and we try to be helpful with those as well), but …

Sorry, Oscar Mayer!

Sorry, Ballpark!

Sorry, Nathan’s and anyone else who might be interested in 1-800-HOT-DOGS …

… but we’re keeping it!

By Carl

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Business, Customers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.