AUSTIN, Minn. – Fate has brought an American food company and a canned meat product a level of fame shared by no other form of meat.
The product’s name was adopted by an American army outpost in the Second World War, used 98 times in a Monty Python skit and is universally applied to junk e-mail.
But instead of shying away from the attention, Hormel Foods Corp. has enthusiastically embraced the culture of Spam.
The company has not merely accepted society’s humorous attachment to what could be seen as a rather mundane luncheon meat, but has celebrated the Spam culture and pushed it to new heights of irony.
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It claims sasquatches have been reported stealing hunters’ cans of Spam in the bush and offers photographs as proof.
In Austin – the founding location and corporate headquarters of Hormel Foods – every year thousands of tourists descend on the Spam Museum, a high-tech, expensive and exuberant information and promotional device that the company has built beside its downtown offices, to immerse themselves in Spam culture.
It’s not just a few dusty displays about the creation and development of Spam, which was born in 1937 and is still manufactured in Austin.
The museum contains a fancy film theatre that shows Spam advertisements from the past 70 years, including performances of the Spamette singing girls.
It has a mock radio studio where tourists can hear Spam jingles sung by famous singers such as George Burns and Gracie Allen.
It contains a mock food processing area where visitors can don a meat packer’s smock, helmet and gloves and time themselves putting together cans of Spam.
It’s a cornucopia of Spam information and multi-media promotion.
William McLain, manager of external communications for Hormel, said his company sees no problem encouraging the public’s ironic celebration of Spam.
Hormel is keen on the product, too.
“Spam is a great product,” McLain said as he led a tour through the museum.
“It’s a versatile product. We embrace that. Consumers find all sorts of uses for it. We embrace the Spam family of products.”
Hormel is just about to launch a nationwide U.S. TV campaign to “re-energize the brand,” following a similar campaign last year.
“We’re going to be talking about how Spam can spice up an everyday meal,” McLain said.
“Add a Spam classic to macaroni and cheese. It’ll break the monotony of an everyday meal.”
Hormel does more than slaughter pigs and make Spam. McLain said the company produces 34 food products that are either No. 1 or 2 in their markets, including Jennie-O Turkey and Chi-Chi’s Salsa, but none has the cult following of Spam.
Why is that so?
“I don’t have any answer for that,” McLain said.
But as museum visitors picked up cans of Spam, Spam-themed T-shirts, Spam-labelled soccer balls and a host of other Spam-promotional products in the gift shop, it seemed unlikely the cult of Spam will soon fade. Indeed, the Spam Museum recently extended its hours and days open.
And just days before his inauguration, U.S. president Barack Obama was spotted in his home state of Hawaii eating a piece of Spam musubi – traditional Spam sushi.
“That was good to see,” McLain said with a smile.
