Employee from Butler County featured in national Meijer commercial

Oscar Hernandez, a food safety manager at the West Chester Meijer location, is starring in a 15-second “Quality is No Accident” commercial for the chain in which he is examining an avocado. While being a short commercial, his service to Meijer has been extensive for the short amount of time he has worked there.

Hernandez started with Meijer in 2016 as a food safety specialist after hearing about the position while working as a local health county employee in northwest Ohio. A year after, he was promoted to food safety manager.

His work has taken him throughout the midwest, travelling to more than 138 stores to instruct employees on the proper guidelines of food inspection.

“We want to make our customers happy and the real way to do that is to have the best available product,” said Hernandez.

When his boss told him about the opportunity, Hernandez didn’t know exactly what his employer was looking for in the video application. He figured his best chance to be selected was to market himself and to have his idea stand out from the rest.

He shot his application at the Springfield Meijer and the next thing Hernandez knew he had been selected and was sent to Los Angeles. Hernandez would be a portion of Meijer’s campaign that highlighted its varying departments.

“The first week of February, I went to Los Angeles,” said Hernandez. “It was a godsend in temperature after the bitter cold we had here during that time.”

The filming began at 5 a.m. in what Hernandez called a “very professional setting.” About 35 people were working on the set.

“I’m confident in my role, but in this role (in the filming studio), I was humbled to say the least with people watching me mess up and just having the foresight myself to just laugh, go with the flow and pick up where we left off,” said Hernandez.

This was the first time that Meijer used employees in a commercial, a decision that public relations manager Christina Fetcher said was done to differentiate from their competition.

“It was time to tell our story, and who better to do that than our talented team members who work diligently every day,” said Peter Whitsett, Executive Vice President of Merchandising & Marketing.

Hernandez’s commercial has been on the air since May and while he has received notoriety from co-workers and friends, he insists that the “fame” hasn’t changed him.

“My friends have watched it on T.V. and sent Facebook compliments, calling me ‘Hollywood’ and the ‘Avocado King’,” said Hernandez. “It’s been fun, but I’m just a normal guy.”

The commercial will run until the end of the month.

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