THE ONE-MAN PEPPERONI BAND

THE ACCORDION has always been a part of Alex Meixner's life. But even he could not have predicted it would make him an advertising star.

It all began with his band's performance at a Wisconsin summer festival in 2015. That gig, which Mr. Meixner said was almost canceled because of rain, turned out to be a turning point in his career, leading to his role as the familiar face of Hormel pepperoni. His quirky one-man band characterization is now in its second year.

After leading the pepperoni category with limited marketing, Hormel and longtime creative agency BBDO Minneapolis wanted to pep up the business. Hormel had not advertised any pepperoni products on TV since 2011. They decided a one-man pep band could show people how pepperoni peps up everyday life, and were getting ready to hold auditions. After someone close to the agency saw Mr. Meixner's band in Wisconsin, BBDO Minneapolis reached out to him to audition.

Mr. Meixner's father had a band, a recording studio and a record shop that was also a mail-order business for items including polka recordings when the family lived in Pennsylvania. They relocated to the Orlando, Fla., area when his father got a job as a musician at Epcot Center. Mr. Meixner went on to graduate from Ithaca College with trumpet performance and music education degrees, though the accordion is the instrument he is most associated with to this day. "You couldn't be an accordion major," he said.

He expected to land in academia. As it turned out, "There was a resurgence. The word 'polka' became less of a stigma and more of a unique oddity,...