Oscar Mayer Does Not Support The War Hoax

Summary:
Email claims that Oscar Mayer refused to donate hotdogs to US Marines stationed in Iraq because the company does not support the war (Full commentary below).



Status:
False

Example:(Submitted, January 2008)


Commentary:
According to this protest message, American meat products company, Oscar Mayer (now owned by Kraft) refused a request to supply hot dogs to Marines stationed in Iraq on the grounds that

©iStockphoto.com/Tomasz Dlugosz An email claiming that Oscar Mayer does not support the war in Iraq is a hoax

it does not support the war. The message asks that recipients show their support for the troops by passing on the email and refusing to buy Oscar Mayer products.

However, the claims in the message are untrue. Oscar Mayer does not oppose the war in Iraq and sent no such refusal letter. In fact, the email is just a re-worked version of an earlier protest message that claimed that Starbucks refused to donate coffee to Marines because it did not support the war. As the following copy of the Starbucks version reveals, both messages are virtually identical except for the company name and product:

Recently Marines in Iraq wrote to Starbucks because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their coffees and to request that they send some of it to the troops there. Starbucks replied, telling the Marines thank you for their support of their business, but that Starbucks does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of coffee.

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

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

Thus, it appears that someone has simply substituted "Oscar Mayer" for "Starbucks" and "hot dogs" for "coffee" before sending the message on. Moreover, even the Starbucks version of the message turned out to be untrue. Sgt Howard C. Wright is a real person, and he did pen the original version of the message. However, he had mistakenly based his protest message about Starbucks on false information and later retracted his statements in a follow-up email.

Oscar Mayer has published the following statement denying the claims in the message:

False Rumor: Oscar Mayer doesn't support the troops.

The email hoax above is currently in circulation but completely false. We do support the troops; in fact, KRAFT FOODS/OSCAR MAYER has donated products to the U.S. troops in Iraq. We work with the military to ensure favorite Kraft products are available where our troops are stationed. Due to security and logistic concerns, the military requests that all product go through previously established channels. This ensures our donations are safely delivered where needed.

We don't know how the internet statement originated as we work through approved channels to accommodate military requests as appropriate.

We would appreciate it if you would let your friends who shared emails with you on this topic know that it actually is an email hoax.

Kraft and Oscar Mayer have a long history of serving our Nation's military. Portable food for soldiers used in WWII was originally developed by Kraft and nicknamed "K-rations."

Today, Oscar Mayer provides Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines everything from hot dogs to deli shaved meats through military cafeterias and commissaries around the world.

Oscar Mayer supports the troops in other ways as well. For example, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile vehicles visit about half of the more public US military bases each year making about 70 total stops.

Then what is that internet statement and how did it get started?

We don't know how the internet statement originated as we work through approved channels to accommodate military requests as appropriate.

References:
Starbucks Lack of Support For Iraq Troops Rumor
Oscar Mayer: Hoaxes & Rumors

Last updated: 23rd January 2008
First published: 23rd January 2008

Write-up by Brett M. Christensen

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