History Main / TheDinnermobile

* Not to be outdone in the "elongated food item as vehicle" wars, '''Planters''' has the Nutmobile, which, naturally, resembles a very large shell-on peanut. The Nutmobile also featured prominently in Planters' controversial 2020 Super Bowl ad campaign, in which the giant legume-looking lorry was destroyed in a fall and subsequent explosion...along with company mascot Mr. Peanut himself.

* The 1998 UsefulNotes/PlayStation game ''VideoGame/RogueTrip'' has a vehicle called the Meat Wagon, which is essentially a copy of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile with a hockey mask welded onto the front end of the sausage.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

Using vehicles as billboards to advertise products is nothing new -- just look at any commerical bus or public transportation -- but '''The Dinnermobile''' takes the idea to its logical extreme: the food item is not ''on'' the vehicle, the food ''is'' the vehicle. It refers to vehicles that are actually ''shaped'' like a piece of food -- a hamburger, a hot dog, a carton of milk, and so on.

While most foods could theoretically be designed into a vehicle, things like hot dogs, hamburgers, and fruits are among the most common design choices for Dinnermobiles. This is partly a matter of precedent -- after all, the iconic Oscar Mayer Weinermobile popularized the concept -- but it's also a matter of practicality. These foods tend to have shapes that are relatively easy to design a vehicle around: they're fairly symmetrical, compact, proportionate, and three-dimensional. Or, more to the point, they're not flat, ridiculously wide or tall, full of appendages sticking out of the sides, or anything else that would make them impractical or even unsafe to drive as a vehicle. That's why a sausage-shaped car can by built, but even the ''idea'' of a car shaped like a thin-crust pizza would give any automotive engineer a migraine.

While most foods could theoretically be designed into a vehicle, things like hot dogs, hamburgers, and fruits are among the most common design choices for Dinnermobiles. This is partly a matter of precedent -- after all, the iconic Oscar Mayer Weinermobile popularized the concept -- but it's also a matter of practicality. These foods tend to have shapes that are relatively easy to design a vehicle around: they're fairly symmetrical, compact, proportionate, and three-dimensional. Or, more to the point, they're not flat, ridiculously wide or tall, full of appendages sticking out of the sides, or anything else that would make them impractical or even unsafe to drive as a vehicle. That's why a sausage-shaped car makes sense, but even the ''idea'' of a car shaped like a thin-crust pizza would give any automotive engineer a migraine.

* In a parody of/homage to Cinderella's pumpkin carriage, the end of ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' sees Shrek and Fiona ride away in a carriage that was very obviously an onion prior to transformation.

** Creator/DaveBarry, holding that AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents as a lifetime goal, [[https://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article1934773.html once picked up his son from school in the Weinermobile.]]

* In 1991, UsefulNotes/McDonalds released a line of flip cars based on ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' in their Happy Meals. Two of these toys included Buster Bunny driving a car shaped like a [[TrademarkFavoriteFood carrot]] and Hamton J. Pig driving a car shaped like a submarine sandwich (with tomato-shaped wheels).

* In an ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode Roger starts working in a hot dog company. His company car, naturally, is a huge hot dog, though one depicted balanced on its tip rather than resting on the ground.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeanyAndCecil'': the title antagonist of "Beany Meets the Monstrous Monster" envisions the Leakin' Lena and Cecil as an ice cream sundae.

* In a ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' episode Toot dreams of the Wienermobile (a rather shameless {{Expy}} of the ''actual'' Weinermobile), a mythical hot dog-shaped truck that gives out sausages for free. [[spoiler:When she finally encounters it she swallows the whole truck in one gulp, ending with her dying in a huge explosion.]]

One of the most important steps towards starting or growing any kind of business is the simplest, yet one of the most difficult to actually pull off: getting your name and product out there, and making sure people remember who you are. That one truism explains so much about the commercials you see on television: yeah, that commercial may have been stupid and annoying as hell, but if you remember it...well, mission accomplished.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/GoodBurger'', the titular restaurant has the "Burgermobile", a 1975 AMC Pacer with a front end that looks like a giant burger and is occasionally driven by Ed.
* In an extremely bizarre inversion of the trope, ''Film/SesameStreetPresentsFollowThatBird'' has Cookie Monster riding along in a car that in no way resembles a cookie or any other food item... and yet [[ExtremeOmnivore he spends the entire film snacking on the car]], much to the rest of his party's bewilderment. By the end of their journey, Cookie has eaten so much of the car that Gordon has to ''push'' it back to Sesame Street.
[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

For cases where the food-shaped item is a stationary building, see {{Bizarchitecture}}.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': In [[https://garfield.com/comic/1985/08/18 this comic]], Garfield mistakes a hot dog truck for a giant hot dog. He feels rather silly when it proves inedible, but then decides to have "dessert" by doing the same thing to an ice cream truck.

** One episode has Rocko and Heffer stop at a roadside diner after losing their car. Heffer wins a MegaMealChallenge there and the prize is a hot dog-shaped truck.

** Another episode, "Schnit Heads", has Rocko and Filburt make a sausage-deity-shaped TrojanHorse vehicle to rescue Heifer from a cult, but his weight makes the "jaw" fall off and exposes them.

* In an ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode Roger starts working in a hot dog company. His company car, naturally, is a huge hot dog.

* In the ''Music/BloodhoundGang'' music video for their song "Ralph Wiggum" (a found-lyrics song consisting of [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Ralph Wiggum]] quotes), the lyrics "Go Banana" cut to show a banana-shaped car driving past.

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* In an extremely bizarre inversion of the trope, ''Film/SesameStreetPresentsFollowThatBird'' has Cookie Monster riding along in a car that in no way resembles a cookie or any other food item...and yet [[ExtremeOmnivore he spends the entire film snacking on the car]], much to the rest of his party's bewilderment. By the end of their journey, Cookie has eaten so much of the car that Gordon has to ''push'' it back to Sesame Street.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
* ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'' featured the Fairy Godmother turning a pumpkin into a horse-drawn coach... but despite the transformation, it still looks exactly like a ginormous blinged-out white pumpkin sitting on a chassis.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobSquarepantsMovie'' Spongebob and Patrick travel most of the way to Shell City in the Patty Wagon - a large drivable hamburger, originally intended for promotion of the Krusty Krab.
* In ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', the Sugar Rush game has cute-looking characters driving race cars designed to look like sweet treats, such as candy and cakes. There's even a "bake-a-car" mini-game that lets the player make these kinds of cars.