If you lived in Chicago and have spent any time watching broadcast television, you would know this commercial.



The car door and the wide bracelet are iconic. "710 East Green Street in Bensenville, near O'Hare" is a refrain as well known to denizens here as...actually, I can't think of anything comparable. Hearing or reciting the same phrase for decades makes for some pretty effective advertising. Yes, decades. This commercial has been running for thirty years.

Well, the company feels they are due for an update, and has announced a contest calling for new commercials. In light of this, WGN News tracked down the commercial's star and interviewed him. He is not in the studio, but they have a current still picture of him and, most interesting to me, some raw footage from the shoot.

That is just so cool. I love regional nostalgia. It was very cool that they got in contact with the guy in the ad. He's a bit of a celebrity because of this. That's gotta be sweet. He should sell the watch band and shirt on Ebay for some dough.

There was a semi-local ad that ran in our area for forever and, annoying as it was, stuck in your head. I think it was a Foard and Harwood Shoes ad, in which the jingle simply went "Half price, half price, half price, half price, half... price... shoes".

I can't find it on the web anywhere. But I've seen others discussing the ad, so I didn't imagine it.

I like regional stuff. Too I have a whole youtube playlist for it.

Another one we have here is Empire Carpet. They're different in that they've had dozens of commercials, but they use the same jingle, which is just their phone number and name. If you say "five eight eight" to the right tune, I bet most people who have been in Chicago more than a few years could finish it for you.



That guy was just a pitchman, not the founder as I used to think. He did their commercials until he died a few years ago, but a few years before that they switched to an animated version of him. But he continued to provide voiceovers. I wonder if his health was deteriorating, or if he just wanted to relax more.



I discovered something funny while looking up info for this post--Empire actually has terrible ratings on both Yelp and ConsumerAffairs.com. One of the first google search results is on Consumer Affairs, "Top 291 Complaints and Reviews of Empire Carpet" and it is indeed mostly complaints. Both sites give them one and a half out of five stars. I'm glad I didn't use them! I actually had them come for an estimate when I was looking for new hardwood flooring.

pikachulover wrote :

I like regional stuff. Too I have a whole youtube playlist for it.
-end quote

Post a link, if you want to share  

Ok I'll post the link, but all my stuff is from Los Angeles. Usually if I'm looking for local stuff on youtube I usually search for tv and radio station call letters or names of local sports teams.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrDPLMp8YQd90CsHvV3abS9a9ywwJ7yDT

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrDPLMp8YQd_WOGP2J-V4lnJwaZLyp0qa

This last playlist is of PSAs some are local.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3F0FC97CA2E46091

@pika: Great to see some of that stuff. I liked the Ernest promo and all the Chick Lakers stuff, not to mention hearing Michael Bell do an ad for Del Taco. I could only think of him as Raziel the whole time.

There was even more Chick Lakers stuff, but I think the NBA or somebody removed it.

Here is my channel and some of the videos I uploaded were local.
https://www.youtube.com/user/pikapal91746/videos

pikachulover wrote :

Ok I'll post the link, but all my stuff is from Los Angeles.
-end quote

That's great. I like to see stuff from different places. Thanks a lot! I will go through these in depth in a little bit.

I've got something, for you!

shakin steak wrote :
I've got something, for you!
 -end quote

I don't know whether to be honored or insulted by the fact that those my age have been grouped in with everybody over age 29, while there are 5 other groups before that. Does a driver age 40 not drive any differently at age 74?

I think I saw that insurance commercial before I found a link for it on Buzzfeed.

Shakin have you watched the FuzzyMemories channel on youtube? It's devoted to local Chicago tv.
https://www.youtube.com/user/FuzzyMemoriesTV

I always forget about that. I come across it periodically. I'm really glad they exist. I wish people in more cities were so dedicated.