{"id":938560,"date":"2026-07-16T09:43:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/938560\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:43:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:43:27","slug":"inside-wawas-legendary-hoagiefest-jingles-with-parry-gripp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/938560\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Wawa\u2019s legendary Hoagiefest jingles with Parry Gripp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia summers are filled with annual traditions \u2014 driving to the Jersey Shore, block parties, Center City Sips \u2014 and, of course, Wawa Hoagiefest.<\/p>\n

Wawa\u2019s summer campaign has been a local ritual since it launched in 2008 with ads featuring a groovy John Lennon-looking hoagie man bestowing discount sandwiches (shortis $2.99) to all. The retro font and psychedelic colors harkened back to the peace and love hippie vibes of the 1960s.<\/p>\n

The visuals of that original campaign have remained largely the same over the last two decades, but the music back then was something else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Masterpieces like \u201cHoagiefest Is Back<\/a>\u201d and \u201cHere Comes the Hoagie Man<\/a>\u201d played over and over on local televisions. The jingles were Beatles-inspired and set to images of the cartoon hoagie man coming to town \u2014 sometimes on a hoagie hot air balloon \u2014 and spreading joy with turkey, buns and lettuce for reasonable prices. When I was a kid, my brother actually got a CD with nine different Hoagiefest songs at an event, and we would listen to them in the car.<\/p>\n

The songs were silly, bright, catchy and they were also all written by just one person \u2014 Parry Gripp.<\/a> Whether or not you\u2019ve heard of Gripp, you\u2019ve likely come across his work.<\/p>\n

You may know him as the frontman of Nerf Herder<\/a> \u2014 a \u201890s punk band that has toured with Weezer, the Bloodhound Gang and also created the opening theme for Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/a>.\u00a0 Or perhaps you watched one of his early viral internet videos, songs like \u201cDo You Like Waffles<\/a>,\u201d \u201cHamster on a Piano\u201d<\/a> and \u201cIt\u2019s Raining Tacos<\/a>,\u201d which has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube. Or maybe, you caught his music on children\u2019s television shows, including \u201cBen 10: Omniverse\u201d and \u201cThe 7D\u201d \u2014 the latter of which he won an Emmy for.<\/p>\n

We talked to Gripp to reflect on that simpler time when Hoagiefest shortis were truly just $2.99 instead of the hefty $6 they are today, and you could eat lettuce without even knowing the word cyclosporiasis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. <\/p>\n

\"\"A 2010 Wawa CD with Hoagiefest songs written by Parry Gripp. (Photo by Eric Binswanger)<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve worn a lot of different hats throughout your music career. You were the lead singer of Nerf Herder. You worked on cartoon theme songs and the Wawa jingles. You created a lot of early viral videos. I\u2019m wondering out of all these career phases, what has been the most surprising?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh man, the whole thing is surprising \u2014 I mean just to make music as a living. I sort of stumbled into it, and it just seems like an accidental thing that you couldn\u2019t plan to have happen, like Hoagiefest. From the viral videos to doing the Buffy theme, it was just stuff you couldn\u2019t even dream up. I never said, \u2018Oh, I really want to do sandwich songs for a sandwich chain.\u2019 (Laughs). It all seems very unlikely.<\/p>\n

What do you think makes a good viral song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I think there\u2019s two sides to that. One, it has to be really catchy, and then the reverse side of that is it has to be kind of annoying. You know what I mean? Like it\u2019s sort of repetitive. It gets in your ear like an earworm. You got to say some words over and over again, which is probably irritating to some people, but I think that\u2019s the main thing. For Wawa, it\u2019s got to be kind of upbeat and fun sounding. If you can think of something that\u2019s sort of annoying and then tweak it a little bit and make it likable, then that\u2019s the magic.<\/p>\n

\"\"Parry Gripp at Brak Rock 2025 (Photo by Rudy De Doncker, Courtesy of Parry Gripp)<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to hear more about the creative process behind those commercials. How did they come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Years and years ago, the first kind of viral thing I had was a song called \u201cDo You Like Waffles.\u201d It was before YouTube. Some guy in Pittsburgh animated it, and it became this viral video. And when Wawa was starting Hoagiefest, they wanted to have a website, and the guy who was making the website was friends with the guy who had done this \u201cDo You Like Waffles\u201d video.<\/p>\n

Wawa wanted music just for the website, and so my buddy contacted me. He was like, \u201cHey, they\u2019re looking for music for this website about sandwiches \u2014 like a \u201860s Beatley sounding thing \u2014 would you like to come up with some songs?\u201d And so, that sounded super fun to me. It wasn\u2019t even a job for me. It was just like, oh yeah, that sounds super fun.<\/p>\n

I specifically remember when the contract was being written for the website, the guy negotiating it for me \u2014 the guy with my record company \u2014 was like, \u201cHey, well, if these ever go to TV, will Parry get some more money?\u201d And the people at Wawa were like, \u201cOh no, this is never going to TV. This is just for the website.\u201d But it did. Eventually it went to TV.<\/p>\n

The 1960s cartoon visuals are really linked in my head to Wawa Hoagiefest. Did you see them before creating music, or did they come after the songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I saw all the graphics and stuff. They had a lot of that figured out beforehand. It was inspired by The Beatles\u2019 \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d movie, which was inspired by a guy named Peter Max. As soon as you see those graphics, you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, this is what it should sound like, because the artwork is so tied to that sound.\u201d The artwork was really influential on me when I saw it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a music nerd, right? So I listen to all kinds of music. This thing I really listened to a lot trying to get in the frame of mind to do Hoagiefest over the years was a band called The Rutles<\/a> \u2014 which is a parody of The Beatles. It was some of the guys from Monty Python. They came out with this movie, and they had a record, and it was just super funny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So the commercials are like a parody on a parody in some way. <\/strong>
<\/strong>
<\/strong>Yeah, I would say so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Parry Gripp winning a Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Award for his song \u201cI\u2019m Not Very Nice\u201d on the show \u201c7D\u201d in 2017. (Courtesy of Parry Gripp)<\/p>\n

Did the advertising agency ever hear one of your songs and say \u201cNo, that\u2019s too weird.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tons of them. There\u2019s so many leftover songs. There\u2019s probably like 20 extra. It\u2019s actually really weird. Usually, with advertising at places as big as Wawa, they have an advertising agency and they contract with a music house. So there\u2019s a business, and they have all these songwriters, and they pitch different ideas. You never have like one dude across the country writing all the songs. That\u2019s wholly crazy. So it\u2019s really, really bizarre that I ended up doing so many of those songs.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite song or one that stood out to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh man, I don\u2019t even remember all the titles, but I do really like\u2026 I think there\u2019s one called \u201cCaptain Hoagie\u2019s Shorti Brigade<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remember that one!<\/strong><\/p>\n

That one to me is really funny. I just was laughing a lot when I did that one and probably \u201cHere Comes the Hoagie Man.\u201d I love that too. I know they\u2019re probably very irritating to a lot of people, but I had so much fun doing them and I\u2019m really proud of them.<\/p>\n

Did you do any other Wawa-related projects?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were a couple years where I did all the voiceovers, and it was really challenging because you had to talk really fast. So I\u2019d be like, \u201cGet a roasted Italian shorti for $2.99. Gotta have a Wawa.\u201d Like I\u2019d say it. It would have to be really fast, so it was challenging.<\/p>\n

Is the Hoagie man basically John Lennon? Can we say that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t think we can say that. He\u2019s based on the idea of a \u201860s guy. It\u2019s definitely not John Lennon because that would be problematic. I think he\u2019s just a groovy \u201860s-looking guy.<\/p>\n

You live in California. Have you ever been to Hoagiefest? Have you been to Wawa?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been to Wawa because of my band Nerf Herder. We toured a lot on the East Coast in the late \u201990s and early 2000s. We did a lot of touring with a band called the Bloodhound Gang. They\u2019re from Philadelphia, and those guys \u2014 who are very nice guys \u2014 they introduced us to all kinds of Philadelphia stuff like scrapple and Tastykakes and Wawa. We definitely went to Wawa with them. But since I did Hoagiefest, I\u2019ve probably been to Wawa once. I don\u2019t think it was during Hoagiefest.<\/p>\n

So you didn\u2019t get any of those sweet, sweet summer deals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I didn\u2019t get any deals. I mean, the deal of getting to write those fun songs, that was the best deal. I feel like I got a great deal out of the whole thing.<\/p>\n

That is fair.<\/strong> Although now that I think about it, it does seem like you should just get free hoagies no matter what time of year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know, I\u2019ll try to do that next time I\u2019m back East. I\u2019m going to go into a Wawa, and I\u2019m going to say, \u201cHey, I\u2019m the guy that sings those hoagie songs. Give me a sandwich.\u201d We\u2019ll see what they do.<\/p>\n

You did those commercials for years. By the end of it, was it very second nature or did you have to continue to push yourself to find new ground?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think I was all hoagied out by the end. There\u2019s only so many hoagie songs you can write. I was really surprised every year they came back and said, \u201cHey, do you want to do another song.\u201d I think I said all I had to say about hoagies to be honest. There\u2019s probably other people out there. There\u2019s probably all kinds of people who would love to write more hoagie songs.<\/p>\n

What are you working on now?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So the main thing I\u2019m working on is a Space Unicorn<\/a> movie. It will be a few years before it comes out. And I\u2019m also still writing some songs, but I\u2019m kind of semi-retired. Nerf Herder still plays around. We just went to Europe, which was fun. We played in Germany and Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Austria. It was great. It was before it got really hot over there, and it was just nice. There were no hoagies, but there was a lot of good food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Philadelphia summers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":938561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,648,1322,472,377918,150643,377919,1448,377920,2830,1311,377921,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,65053],"class_list":["post-938560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-arts","tag-featured","tag-history","tag-hoagiefest","tag-hoagies","tag-nerf-herder","tag-pa","tag-parry-gripp","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-shortis","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wawa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116929012171299768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}