Empire Jingle
Dorthea Seate
Empire Today, LLC is an American home improvement and home furnishing company based in Chicago, Illinois, specializing in installed carpet and flooring. The company operates in more than 75 metropolitan areas within the United States, and is most well-known for TV ads featuring a distinctive jingle that recites the company's phone number and name. The company's name comes from the slogan on some of its commercials, "Empire today, carpeting tomorrow". Empire Today claims that it is the largest in-home sales flooring company in the United States.[2]
Empire Today LLC (commonly referred as Empire Today) was founded by entrepreneur Seymour Cohen in 1959.[3] It was initially known as Empire Plastic Covers, a private, family-owned business in Chicago from a small office space. Cohen decided to expand the company's product line in response to growing customer request. In 1965, Empire Plastic Covers changed its name to Empire Home Services, adding carpet to their product line. Over the years, Empire's product line grew, as did the company's national presence. In December 2002, the company was sold, and then in January 2003, adopted its current name: Empire Today.[4] It was acquired by the investment company Mercury Capital LP.[5] In 2016, the company was sold to H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm, for an undisclosed amount.[2]
In 2023, Empire Today implemented a carpet and padding recycling program to minimize the environmental impact of their day-to-day operations. All of the padding removed by Empire Today's installers that can be recycled, will be recycled as part of their program in cooperation with Carpet America Effort (CARE) and Carpet Landfill Elimination and Recycling (CLEAR). In first quarter 2023, Empire piloted the program in select areas, and the program is currently operational in more than 25 of Empire's service areas. Since the program's inception, over eight million pounds of carpet and padding have been recycled, according to Empire's waste tonnage reporting.[6][self-published source?]
Empire Today's advertising is prevalent throughout major metro areas across North America. The company's television and web ads feature the "Empire Man" character. He was originally portrayed as live-action but is now portrayed as a cartoon character at the end of their advertisements.
The "Empire Man" was introduced in 1977 as a live action character and later adapted into a popular animated person that has grown to become a cultural icon, especially in the Chicago area.[7] The "Empire Man" has been seen internationally in commercials and other media, has spawned a line of collectible bobblehead dolls and inspired the Chicago Cubs to declare an official "Empire Day" at Wrigley Field in 2007.[8]
The live action "Empire Man" was portrayed on television by Lynn Hauldren, a former ad executive, from 1977 through 2011. After Empire Today retired the live character in favor of an animated version, Hauldren continued to provide voiceovers for the ads until his death in 2011, though ads with his voiceovers continue to air on television.[9] Since 2017 the "Empire Man" has been portrayed by Ryan Salzwedel in various television spots.
Empire Today's advertising jingle, which has been broadcast since 1977, is a widely recognized theme.[10][self-published source?] The jingle is simply a small vocal group singing out the digits of the telephone number and the company name. Lynn Hauldren, a barbershop quartet performer, wrote and sung the tune[5] to accompany the singing of the company's phone number, and recorded the jingle with an a cappella group, the Fabulous 40s. The famous Empire Today advertising jingle has made the Empire Today phone number one of the most recognized numbers in the country.[7]
Empire Today is a home improvement servicing company based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded by Seymour Cohen in 1959 as Empire Plastic Covers, then expanded to home servicing in 1965, removing "Plastic Covers" from its name. In 2002, the company was sold, and then in January 2003, renamed itself to its current name, "Empire Today", after the slogan "Empire today, carpet tomorrow". In 2016, the company was sold to H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm, for an undisclosed amount.
Music/Sounds: The Empire jingle: a barbershop quartet singing "Five-eight-eight, two-three-hundred, Empire!" with the last note held out. The jingle was composed by Elmer Lynn Hauldren, who also served as Empire's spokesman and mascot (where he portrays the Empire Carpet Man).
Tag: Over a cartoon Chicago city environment, a red carpet rolls in, carrying the yellow numbers "588-2300". As the carpet moves throughout the city, it becomes nighttime, as a large gold "EMPIRE" monument stands between two skyscrapers (Sears Tower, now Willis Tower; and the John Hancock Center) and illuminates. The carpet then fully unrolls and settles below it, as the monument shines.
Music/Sounds Variant: In some commercials, Hauldren can say something else after the jingle had been sung (examples include: "Empire today, carpet tomorrow."; or Hauldren himself simply announcing a sale).
Tag: Same as the last logo, but the logo now takes place in a starry night background with Chicago's skylines. At the center, a rainbow merges and forms, which reveal falling stars that form the "EMPIRE" monument from before. The camera stops, the carpet disappears with the phone number changing to a different font (Helvetica Bold), and the monument shines. Credit card logos appear below (starting in 1987, the credit card logos are arranged as: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover). On some later commercials, a copyright notice appears. Starting in late 1988, "(312)" is chyroned in.
Availability: Seen at the end of commercials from the time. Its first appearance is on an unknown 1986 (likely between July and December of the same year) commercial. The "(312)" version first appeared on the "Is Time Running Out On You?" commercial. The "Why are you waiting?" variant appeared on "Get A Free Football With Order" and the violin/piano variant appeared on "Messing With That New York Company".
Music/Sounds Variant: On some 10-second commercials, the first half of the jingle is omitted. Usually, this is replaced by synth bells playing the "588-2300" part during the commercial before the shortened tag plays.
Tag: It starts over a shot of a telephone, on top of a night stand. A woman picks it up and dials it. The logo zooms out to reveal an apartment room, with each of the furniture having no color and with sad faces drawn on them. An orange cat is sitting next to the woman. As the camera settles, a colored Empire Man busts through the door holding a blue carpet. He tosses it down, making everything in the room bounce and become colored as well. In addition, all of the sad faces turn happy. As that happens, inside the carpet is a white "EMPIRE", bouncing into the screen. Throughout the duration of the tag, a blue "588-2300" flies in one-by-one to the jingle, coming from the telephone. At the end, a line rotates to the left of the number, and expands to reveal "(312)".
Tag: On a blue blinded background, there is a image of a blue house in a box at the left side of the screen, next to the box is "Vinyl Siding & Windows in a Week", underneath both of them is "EMPIRE HOME SERVICES, LLC" along with an url, on top of them are "800-588-2300", which first begins with a shine and then fades in one-by-one to the jingle.
Editor's Note: By far, Empire's most well-known end tag. It has seen numerous memes involving the jingle and end tag, even from outside the logo community, and even after it got replaced by the next logo in August 2015.
An animated Empire Man at the end walks up with a suitcase and jumps, transforming into a 2D version as "EMPIRE" slides in from the left next to the text. A smaller "TODAY" slides in from the right of it and flashes. A URL and website information appear below.
Availability: Empire first introduced this tag in their Half Price Sale commercials which first aired in August of 2015, then uploading it standalone on November 4, 2015. It has since seen common use on television and numerous informational videos, such as "Why Empire?", to this day.
Visuals: Over a cartoon Chicago city environment, a red carpet rolls in, carrying the yellow numbers "588-2300". As the carpet moves throughout the city, it becomes nighttime, as a large gold "EMPIRE" monument stands between two skyscrapers (Sears Tower, now Willis Tower, and the John Hancock Center) and illuminates. The carpet then fully unrolls and settles below it, as the monument shines.
Visuals: Same as the last logo, but the logo now takes place in a starry night background with Chicago's skylines. At the center, a rainbow merges and forms, which reveal falling stars that form the "EMPIRE" monument from before. The camera stops, the carpet disappears with the phone number changing to a different font (Helvetica Bold), and the monument shines. Credit card logos appear below.
Availability: Seen at the end of commercials from the time, such as "Carpet Only", and "Why Not Empire Today". Although not really known where its first appearance was, the 312 version first appeared in 1988 for the "Is Time Running Out On You?" commercial, the "Why are you waiting?" variant appeared on "Get A Free Football With Order", and the piano variant appeared on "Messing With That New York Company".
Visuals: On a black background, we see the silver numbers "588-2300" slide one-by-one, onto the top half of the screen. A few seconds later, the silver word "EMPIRE" zooms out and rotates into view. As a rainbow forms in the background, A chyroned "(312)" fades in on top of the number, and the text
Audio Variant: On some 10-second commercials, the first half of the jingle is omitted. Usually, this is replaced by synth bells playing the "588-2300" part during the commercial before the shortened tag plays.