She chose to conclude her life on a road trip
Norma Bauerschmidt, who inspired millions around the world by choosing to live the end of her life rather than undergo cancer treatment, died Friday morning the way she wanted — in her bed in the motor home in which she and her family had been traveling the country.
She was 91 and had made it to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Wash., where last month she saw her first killer whales. That was one of many highlights on a year-long road trip from her former home in Presque Isle, Mich., with her son, Tim, and his wife, Ramie Liddle, a native of Zelienople.
They and poodle Ringo had
The name Richard D. Trentlage may not roll off the tongues of most Americans, but generations of them, for good or ill, can no doubt sing along with some of the catchiest advertising jingles that he wrote for companies such as Oscar Mayer and McDonald’s.
Especially this one:
Mr. Trentlage died on Sept. 21 at a hospital in Libertyville, Ill. He was 87.
His daughter, Linda Bruun, said the cause was congestive heart failure.
Mr. Trentlage’s melodies, lyrics and tag lines were practically a hit parade in the advertising world, many of them with the mental stickiness of flypaper; among others, he wrote “McDonald’s is your kind of place”; “Wow! It sure doesn’t taste like tomato juice,” for V8; and “Buckle up for safety, buckle up!” (sung to the tune of “Buckle Down, Winsocki”) for a National Safety Council seatbelt promotion.
“The Oscar Mayer Wiener Song” had its beginnings in September 1962, when Mr. Trentlage, who worked for large advertising agencies like McCannErickson and D’Arcy before founding his own company, learned that Oscar Mayer, the food giant known for its deli meats and frankfurters, was sponsoring a contest for a wiener jingle.
He heard about the contest only the day before the deadline, but he quickly got to work. At home that night, he started to tap out ideas on a typewriter. Inspiration struck when he remembered one of his sons, using a term for someone who is cool, talking about a friend who was a “dirt-bike hot dog,” he told The Wisconsin State Journal in 2012.
“I wish I could be a dirtbike hot dog,” his son said.
Thus inspired, Mr. Trentlage typed the first line to the jingle, which he completed within an hour. It debuted in 1963 and became the company’s signature advertising tune in 21 English-speaking countries until 2010, when it was retired.
An animated television commercial featured children marching and singing the praises of Oscar Mayer.
While his success with Oscar Mayer was long-lasting, it hardly happened overnight, Ms. Bruun recalled in an interview on Thursday.
Mr. Trentlage delivered the recording to the Oscar Mayer headquarters in Wisconsin, but it was a year before the jingle was selected as the winning entry, Ms. Bruun said.
The company played it before a series of focus groups, and “that’s the one that surfaced over and over” as the favorite, she said.
When the jingle was first heard on a Houston radio station in 1963, listeners, thinking it was a pop tune, requested that it be played repeatedly, Judann Pollack, deputy editor of Advertising Age, said on Thursday.
Over the years there have been perhaps 25 advertising tag lines or jingles that have remained truly memorable, she said, and “this is definitely one of them.”
“Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener
That is what I’d truly like to be
’Cause if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener
Everyone would be in love with me.”