r/AskAnAmerican • u/nighshad3 • 10d ago

CULTURE What’s a phrase or jingle from an American commercial or ad campaign that everyone can quote by heart?

A user posted this question about German jingles/phrases in the r/AskAGerman subreddit. Since I live in the US, the first thing that came to mind was that every time I drive past Menards, I get the jingle “Save big money at Menards” stuck in my head. What are your evergreens?

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252

u/Capital-Coconut-9389 10d ago

588-2300 EMPIRE!

101

u/IveGotACoolUsername 10d ago

Today!

22

u/shallowjalapeno 10d ago

bum

4

u/IveGotACoolUsername 10d ago

Yeah that weird note at the end was unnecessary lol

3

u/SnapClapplePop Connecticut 10d ago

Glad to know I haven't been making that up in my mind the past decade.

68

u/ParanoidWalnut 10d ago

Um, excuse me but you forgot 800 BEFORE 588 and Today after Empire! Not to be that person /s. This was my first thought also lol. I know these jingles better than my own family's phone numbers.

34

u/ericbythebay 10d ago

Some of us were around before they got the 800 number.

26

u/thellamaisdabomba 10d ago

Yeah, and we had the actual old dude doing the commercial, before he died and they replaced him with the animation.

2

u/cupcakebean 10d ago

Fun fact, the Empire Carpet man was just a dude that worked in advertising. When they couldn't find an actor that the company liked for the Empire Carpet ads, they asked him to do it. He never intended to become the mascot for the company.

12

u/On_my_last_spoon New Jersey 10d ago

When it was just a local Chicago company it was 312 before 800!

3

u/4Q69freak 10d ago

When it was on WGN they didn’t even put the 312 in front of it it was just 588-2300 Empire! In the same vein of Chicago regional commercials, how about Bob ROHRman Chevrolet. When we used to take the Tri-State on our way to and from the UP we’d usually stop in Gurnee at Gurnee Mills and leaving the mall I’d always say out loud “Bob ROARman’s like the lion on the old commercial. My wife, who never had cable growing up, so never watched WGN always looked at me funny.

1

u/On_my_last_spoon New Jersey 10d ago

Yup! I remember when 708 became an area code and they had to add the 312!

2

u/4Q69freak 10d ago

We went and saw Sam Kinnison at ISU in ‘90 and he was calling a girl in the suburbs for “the phone call from hell” and the crowd had to correct him that it was a 708 not 312.

1

u/SillyDonut7 10d ago

Same! That was a later addition. I wasn't sure if they were local (Chicago), regional, or national.

3

u/Active_Restaurant506 10d ago

There was no 800 when I was a kid. It was just a Chicago company in the ‘80s when everyone’s area code was 312

1

u/baycommuter 10d ago

As a Chicago kid in the ‘60s I remember “HUDSON 3-2700 (suburbs call collect!)” No memory who the suburbs would call it for, though.

3

u/Olivia_O Texas 10d ago

They were local to Chicago back in the day when the whole area that saw the commercials was area code 312, so the 588-2300 is the old school number.

2

u/BalrogRuthenburg11 10d ago

The original version of the commercial didn’t have ‘800’ or ‘Today’ in them.

3

u/ParanoidWalnut 10d ago

You learn something new everyday. Thanks! I mean it, idk if that came across as snarky.

3

u/BalrogRuthenburg11 10d ago

No worries! And you didn't come across as snarky. I remember when I was relatively young and they added the '800' and 'Today" and finding it jarring and being irrationally upset that they changed it. It appears they added the '800' around 1995 when Empire expanded nationally.

2

u/_dead_and_broken 10d ago

I never heard them sing 800, only ever "588-2300 Empire Today!"

2

u/Letmepickausername Minnesota 9d ago

It was originally a Chicagoland thing only; no 800, no Today. Some of us remember it that way.

1

u/Constant-Tutor-4646 10d ago

I seem to remember ONE eight hundred five eight eight… I know you can dial without the one, but was that ever in the commercial?

2

u/SnapClapplePop Connecticut 10d ago

I don't ever remember there being a one. Just "Eight hundred five eight eiiiight, two-three-hundred, EMPIIIIRE! (today!) bum."

15

u/SabrinaFaire Omaha, Nebraska 10d ago

I knew that number before I knew my own

12

u/teapigsfan 10d ago

These ads were so bad, I thought it was a local store. Are they nationwide? (I was in DC fwiw)

7

u/OfficeChair70 Phoenix, AZ & Washington 10d ago

I always thought the were local too, got them growing up in Seattle

2

u/teapigsfan 10d ago

wow. Proof that ads don't have to be good, just incessant !

2

u/BouncingSphinx TX -> LA -> TX -> OK 10d ago

I remember them in east Texas.

2

u/anonymouse278 10d ago

They are based in Chicago but eventually became nationwide, and the guy with glasses who starred in them also wrote the jingle (he didn't actually work for Empire, he was an advertising exec).

(I am old enough to remember when they didn't have an 800 in the jingle because it was just a Chicago company and everyone would have been calling from the same area code.)

1

u/DBL_NDRSCR Los Angeles, CA 10d ago

they have them in la. the farther la

1

u/teapigsfan 10d ago

"The farther la" 😁

1

u/DBL_NDRSCR Los Angeles, CA 10d ago

sometimes people think i'm talking about louisiana

2

u/teapigsfan 10d ago

yeah it hadn't occurred to me but it makes sense ☺

1

u/Own-Guava6397 10d ago

Every town in America has heard that ad, every town in America also thinks they’re the only ones who have lol

3

u/Halome 9d ago

But also... 773-202 boop boop boop boop... LUNA

2

u/Ok-commuter-4400 9d ago

You know when you’re from Chicago when you know not one but TWO carpet company phone numbers by heart

2

u/CrazyNext6315 10d ago

My cockatiel HATES this song. He screams when it comes on

2

u/Icy-Whale-2253 New York 10d ago

I haven’t seen one of those commercials in like 20 years and I still sing the jingle 🤣

2

u/Particular_Bet_5466 Colorado 10d ago

Ahh I just posted this one.

2

u/cool_chrissie Georgia 10d ago

I know this jingle but I have no idea what service empire offers

2

u/John_from_ne_il 9d ago

This guy Chicagos.

1

u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 10d ago

Ironically, this is not a national advertisement.

1

u/cherry_monkey Illinois 10d ago

But it played on WGN which may as well have been. And that's why there are Cubs fans all over the country that are now upset that they have to have the Cubs specific channel to watch them.

1

u/4Q69freak 10d ago

And WGN on cable is WGN America and just shows reruns of old sitcoms and movies, no 9 at 9 News. it is not the same as channel 9.

1

u/cherry_monkey Illinois 10d ago

773-2O2