Interactive game challenges SPAM museum visitor to try her hand at canning SPAM.

SPAM Museum

Austin, Minnesota

Before there was a vile industry of unwanted marketing email, there was SPAM, a processed meat marvel that some say helped the Allies win World War II. But today's younger generation doesn't remember or care about that distant conflict or its meat heroes. Even fans of Monty Python's more recent paean to SPAM are probably one gut chortle away from the grave.

So what's the company that made (and continues to make) SPAM to do?

In 1991, Hormel marked its 100th anniversary by opening a small museum in the local mall (see story below). In the 1990s, the word "spam" took on a whole new, negative meaning, in stark contrast to Spam's normally happy associations (the only cheery equivalent we've encountered in the world of meat marketing is the beloved Oscar Mayer Wienermobile).

Hormel wasn't going to let its most recognized brand asset be eaten by email. By 2002, the company had retired the mall museum and built an expansive new SPAM museum in its own building.

The museum offers many new displays and ways to interact with SPAM. An electronic counter keeps track of the total of all SPAM ever produced. An interactive game encourages visitors to try their hand at canning spam along a mock assembly line, where I Love Lucy antics inevitably occur.

There are still ample exhibits on company history, with some of our favorite items carried over from the old mall museum.

More about the museum:

• SPAM played an important role in feeding the Allied Forces during World War II. The SPAM Museum features a letter to Hormel from President Dwight D. Eisenhower and includes a replication of SPAMVILLE, a military camp named after the wartime treat.
• A towering wall of SPAM, comprised of 3,390 cans, rises to the ceiling in the lobby of the museum.
• One vignette in the museum features life-sized representations of Hormel Foods founder George Hormel and his son, Jay. George Hormel's own desk - and an original time clock from Hormel Foods early days - also are on display.
• The museum features a rendition of Monty Python's classic three-minute SPAM skit, which has fun highlighting the ubiquity of SPAM in Britain since World War II.

According to tipster George Goto, who attended the Grand Opening in 2002: "Learn more about Hormel meat products than you could possibly care about, but unlike most places of corporate history as told by the corporations, Hormel at least shows a sense of humor in acknowledging its past and present, with a keen eye towards trivia about itself .I don't know if Nikita Khrushchev actually said that Spam saved the Russian Army during WWII, but someone should have said that."

SPAM Museum (before 2002)

This is the town where George A. Hormel started his meat-processing empire in 1891. So it's fitting that Man's greatest meat-processing achievement -- SPAM -- should be honored in Man's greatest consumer-processing achievement — the shopping mall. Austin's Oak Park Mall has been home to the SPAM Museum since Hormel's 1991 celebration of its 100th anniversary.

Hormel has given up any hope this place would be publicized as the Hormel Company Museum (its original charter). As the SPAM museum, it attracted 60,000 tourists in 1997. Visitors enter through a large SPAM can into a small museum of glass display cases. The cases are jammed with artifacts, product packaging and promotional items.

Spam luncheon meat was introduced to the public in 1937. You can see photos of Slammin' Spammy, World War II's bomb-throwing pig, and patriotic mascot. There are items about SPAM cookoffs in Hawaii and SPAM-carving contests in Seattle.

Hormel has created more than 1,600 different products during its history. Forgotten curiosities like Hormel Dog Dessert in a tube, Wimpy's Hamburgers in a Can (8 to a can). Meat milestones during their century of innovation include the first canned ham, first canned chili, and the first shelf stable luncheon meat.

Exhibits are occasionally changed, and provide glimpses into the world of Hormel. We've seen a case devoted to traveling promotional sensation, the Hormel Girls, who crisscrossed the country in the 50s, singing, dancing and spreading the Hormel message. There are old copies of "Squeal," the Hormel Company's employee magazine, and the golf clubs and bags of Jay and George Hormel. A video runs continuously, showing highlights from company-produced promotional films and TV commercials.