It's sweet. It's salty. It's the darling of monosyllabic luncheon meats. Its four letters have inspired Monty Python skits, a Broadway musical, an even more ubiquitous email term -- and, most recently, an aggressive, multi-level marketing campaign by the actual makers of the product. Clearly the word is out about SPAM, however you slice it.

Take a look at a few Hormel Foods-derived numbers to prove just how far the company's flagship grocery product has come since it arrived on the shelf in 1937:

Number of cans sold since its inception: more than 7 billion.
Number of countries around the world that sell SPAM: Nearly 50
Number of cans sold annually in the U.S. alone: 90 million. Another way of putting that: Three cans every second.

While SPAM isn't hurting for brand recognition (number of 70th Anniversary T-shirts sold last year: 15,000), this year's marketing push is one of the biggest in the product's recent history.

"It's the most comprehensive integrated campaign that has occurred in years," says Hormel Group Product Manager for Grocery Products, Swen Neufeldt. "It represents a significant step for the brand, involving spot TV, national print and a revamped website. Last year, the brand did work on advertising surrounding the launch of SPAM Singles, but nothing of this magnitude."

Author notes: Jordan Rane is a freelance writer. Read full bio.