Campus Connection

[caption id="attachment_4914" align="alignright" width="1000"] UWL May graduate Molle Klein pictured with the wienermobile she drives across the southeast region of the U.S. as a brand ambassador for Oscar Mayer.[/caption]

UWL marketing grad launches PR career with major company

UWL May graduate Molle Klein likes to say she “cut the mustard.” The marketing major was one of a dozen recent college graduates across the nation selected from about 1,500 applicants to become a brand ambassador for Oscar Mayer. Klein says she has time to come up with clever puns related to her position while driving across the southeast region of the country in a 27-foot-long hot dog on wheels. Driving the wienermobile is the “best job out of college” because of the variety of people and small-town America she is able to experience. The wienermobile travels to a new city each day, making appearances from major-city parades to small-town festivals — all the while promoting one of America’s most famous foods, the hot dog. “It’s a parade every day in the wienermobile. You’re always waving and everyone you encounter is happy,” says Klein. “Their jaws always drop when we pass. People tell us ‘this just made my day.’” Oscar Mayer recruits most of its “hotdoggers” from four U.S. universities with large communication programs. Klein heard about the opportunity from a friend and applied online. She then travelled to Madison for a two-day interview. “The four rounds of interviews the second day were very rigorous, but definitely worth it and a ton of fun,” she says. “I felt like I was on a reality TV show ‘Project Runway’ or ‘The Bachelor,’ competing against all these other people for just a few spots.” Klein was able to land the job because of her personable nature and trustworthiness. Being an official spokesperson for a major company, the reputation of the brand is in her hands whether she’s working or not. “You can’t exactly hide the wienermobile,” she says. “You always have to be on.” In interviews, Klein was also able to draw from her UWL experience. She demonstrated her involvement and time management through participation in a campus professional business fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi, and part-time work at Murphy Library. She learned the basics of marketing communication from UWL marketing classes and also a close-knit campus atmosphere where people know one another well and network a lot. She also had internship experience scheduling classes for Kaplan.