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 (see details below)
Example:
Email text contributed by Karen A., Apr. 24, 2007:
Subject: Fwd: Oscar MeyerGuess 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 PLTPLEASE 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
Analysis: 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.
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Sources and further reading:
Starbucks Refuses to Donate Coffee to U.S. Marines?
Netlore Archive, 23 August 2004
Last updated: 05/11/07
