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Empire Today, LLC is a Northlake, Illinois
Northlake, Illinois

Northlake "The City of Friendly People" is a city in Cook County, Illinois, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,878 at the 2000 census....
-based home improvement and home furnishing company, specializing in flooring installation, window treatments, and bath renovation products. As of 2008, the company operates in over 50 major metropolitan areas in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, making it the leading provider of home improvement
Home Improvement

Home Improvement is an situation comedy starring Tim Allen, which aired 1991 to 1999. The show was created by Matt Williams , Carmen Finestra and David MacFadzean....
s and home furnishings in North America--having served over one million customers. In 2007, Empire Today was named the #1 Specialty Flooring Retailer in the U.S.






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Empire Today, LLC is a Northlake, Illinois
Northlake, Illinois

Northlake "The City of Friendly People" is a city in Cook County, Illinois, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,878 at the 2000 census....
-based home improvement and home furnishing company, specializing in flooring installation, window treatments, and bath renovation products. As of 2008, the company operates in over 50 major metropolitan areas in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 and Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, making it the leading provider of home improvement
Home Improvement

Home Improvement is an situation comedy starring Tim Allen, which aired 1991 to 1999. The show was created by Matt Williams , Carmen Finestra and David MacFadzean....
s and home furnishings in North America--having served over one million customers. In 2007, Empire Today was named the #1 Specialty Flooring Retailer in the U.S. and one of the Nation's Top 200 Brand Names (ahead of Office Depot
Office Depot

Office Depot is a supplier of office products and services. The Company's selection of brand name office supplies includes business machines, computers, computer software and office furniture, while its business services encompass copying, printing, document reproduction, mailing and shipping....
, Post Cereals
Post Cereals

Post Cereals was founded by C.W. Post. It began in 1895 with the first Postum, a "cereal beverage", developed by Post in Battle Creek, Michigan....
, Hallmark
Hallmark

A hallmark is a mark or series of marks struck on items made of precious metals — platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium....
, Panasonic
Panasonic

Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation Under this brand the company sells Plasma display and LCD display panels, DVD recorders and players, Blu-ray Disc players, camcorders, telephones, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, shavers, projectors, digital cameras, batteries, lapto...
, Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is a global United States pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
, Dunkin' Donuts
Dunkin' Donuts

Dunkin' Donuts is an international Doughnut and coffee retailer founded in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts, Massachusetts by William Rosenberg. It is now headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts....
, H&R Block
H&R Block

H&R Block is a tax preparation company in the United States, claiming more than 22 million customers worldwide, with offices in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom....
, Intel, and PlayStation
PlayStation

The PlayStation is a 32-bit history of video game consoles video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December .The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation ....
). Empire Today is known for making personal sales calls and next day installation, thus eliminating the need for showrooms and retail sales outlets, allowing Empire to provide its products at low prices. Empire Today offers next day installation on carpet, hardwood flooring, laminate flooring, ceramic flooring, window treatments, bath liners, and shower enclosures. The company was founded in 1959 by Seymour Cohen and was a family-run business under its original name, Empire Carpet.

Advertising

Empire Today's advertising is prevalent in areas serviced by the company, especially throughout Atlanta; Baltimore; Birmingham, AL
Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in the United States state of Alabama and is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama. It also includes part of Shelby County, Alabama....
; Boston; Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
; Charlotte; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbus
Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the Capital , the largest, and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. Located near the Geographic centers of the United States, Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County, Ohio, although parts of the city also extend into Delaware County, Ohio and Fairfield County, Ohio counties....
; Dallas-Fort Worth; Denver; Detroit; Harrisburg; Hartford; Houston; Indianapolis; Kansas City
Kansas City

Kansas City may refer to:* Kansas City Metropolitan Area, metropolitan area surrounding Kansas City, Missouri includes territory in both Missouri and Kansas....
; Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas metropolitan area includes the Las Vegas Valley, a 600-square-mile basin, and surrounding areas, that is part of Clark County, Nevada in southern Nevada....
; Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
; Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
; Miami; Milwaukee; Minneapolis-St.Paul; Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
; southern New England
New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
; New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
; Norfolk, VA/Hampton Roads Metro Area
Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water and the region of land areas which surround it in southeastern Virginia in the United States. Hampton Roads is notable for its year-round ice-free harbor, for United States Navy, U.S....
; Orlando
Orlando, Florida

Orlando is a major city in Central Florida, United States and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Florida. It is also the principal city of Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area....
; Philadelphia; Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital and largest city in the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the fifth most populous city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,552,259 residents, and is the anchor of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area with 4,179,427 residents....
; Pittsburgh; Portland, OR
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
; Raleigh-Durham; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco; Sacramento
Sacramento

Sacramento, an Italian language-, Spanish language- and Portuguese language-language word meaning sacrament, is a common Toponymy in parts of the world where those tongues were or are spoken....
; Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton, Pennsylvania

Scranton is a city in Northeastern Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania and the largest principal city in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area....
; Seattle; St. Louis; Tampa
Tâmpa

T?mpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* T?mpa, a village in Bacia Commune, Hunedoara County* T?mpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mures County...
; Toledo
Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio. Named after Toledo, Spain, it is located on the western end of Lake Erie, on the Michigan border....
; Tulsa
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population in the United States. With an estimated population of 384,037 in 2007, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 905,755 residents projected to reach one million between 2010 and 2012....
; Tucson
Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, Arizona, United States, located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix, Arizona and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border....
; Washington DC; and the Greater Toronto Area
Greater Toronto Area

The Greater Toronto Area is the most populous metropolitan area in Canada. The GTA is a provincial planning area with a population of 5,555,912 at the 2006 Canadian Census....
. The company's prominent print and television ads feature the recognizable "Empire Man" character.

Empire Man

The Empire Man was introduced in 1977 as a live action character and later adapted into a popular animated persona that has grown to become a cultural icon. 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
Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball franchise based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members and currently the two-time defending champions of the National League Central of Major League Baseball's National League....
 to declare an official "Empire Day" at Wrigley Field in 2007.

The Empire Man was originally portrayed on television by Lynn Hauldren
Lynn Hauldren

Elmer Lynn Hauldren is a former advertising copywriter based out of Chicago who is best known for originating the television character The Empire Man, the spokesman for Empire Today....
, who continues to provide the voice of the animated character.

Advertising jingle

Empire Today's , which has been broadcast since 1977, is a widely recognized meme. It has been covered in concert by such platinum selling recording artists as Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is an American rock music band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready ....
. An Empire commercial is featured in the opening segment of the feature film Wayne's World
Wayne's World (film)

Wayne's World is a 1992 in film comedy film starring Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, hosts of the Aurora, Illinois, Illinois-based Public-access television show Wayne's World....
 starring Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a weekly late-night 90-minute American sketch comedy/variety show filmed in New York City. It made its debut on October 11, 1975....
 alums Mike Myers
Mike Myers (actor)

Michael John "'Mike" 'Myers is a Canada actor, comedian, screenwriter and film producer. He was a long-time cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and the early 1990s and starred as the title characters in the films Wayne's World , Austin Powers , and Shrek...
 and Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey

Dana Thomas Carvey is an United States comedian and actor, known for his work on Saturday Night Live and the spin-off movie Wayne's World ....
, where the character Benjamin (Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe

Robert Hepler Lowe is an United States actor. He became famous after appearing in popular 1980s movies such as The Outsiders and St. Elmo's Fire , which included other members of the Brat Pack ....
) and his partner (Ione Skye
Ione Skye

Ione Skye Leitch is a British-born American actress....
) are watching television. The song has been featured on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Late Night with Conan O'Brien was an United States late night television talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC from 1993 to 2009....
 during his 2006 visit to Chicago, in which Conan stated that "It is impossible to live in the Chicagoland area and not know the song by heart". The Apprentice
The Apprentice (U.S. TV series)

The Apprentice is an Television in the United States reality television hosted by Donald Trump, created by Mark Burnett and broadcast on NBC....
 contestant Aimee Trottier told Chicago Magazine that what qualfies someone as a true Chicagoan is knowing the Empire Today Jingle by heart.. On a 2008 episode of The Tom Leykis Show on KLSX, 97.1 FM Talk
KLSX

KLSX 97.1, known on-air as AMP Radio 97.1, is a Contemporary hit radio radio station in Los Angeles, California. The station is owned by CBS Radio....
 in Los Angeles, discussion of the Empire Today jingle and some of its history was featured as the lead-in topic of a show on advertising jingles. The Empire Today was played twice on this special episode.

The jingle is simply a small mixed gender vocal group singing out the digits of the telephone number. The original Chicago-centered version was only the seven-digit number:
"588-2300, Em-pire!"


As the chain expanded nationally in 2002, the same tune was used for the seven digits, with a three-note prefix, for the company's toll-free number:
"800-588-2300, Em-pire!"


After the company changed its name to Empire Today in 2003, at first, a new, short-lived, seemingly rushed re-recording of the jingle in a lower key, utilizing fewer vocalists (majority female) and with extra audio enhancement, was released to television:
"Eighthundredfive, eight, eight... 2-300, Em-pire To-daaay!.


Within months, a finalized, more official re-recording returns the jingle to most of its original structure, preferring now to implement the spoken word "Today" (voiced by Hauldren) after the chorus, followed by a new short, synthesized "drumbeat" to conclude the jingle.

According to the company, this phone number is one of the ten most recognized phone numbers in the United States, and the jingle is among the 7 most recognized in the US. Prior to the 800 number, the company had the same telephone number locally in the Chicago area, "five eight eight, two three-hundred", which aired frequently on Chicago superstation
Superstation

Superstation in United States television can have several meanings. In its most precise meaning, a superstation is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as "A television broadcast station, other than a network station, licensed by the FCC that is secondarily transmitted by a satellite carrier."...
 WGN-TV
WGN-TV

WGN-TV, channel 9, is a television station in Chicago, Illinois. It has been owned by the Tribune Company since its inception, and is an affiliate of the CW Television Network....
.

See also

  • Carpet
    Carpet

    A carpet is any loom-woven, felted textile or grass floor covering. The term was also used for table and wall coverings, as carpets were not commonly used on the floor in European interiors until the 18th century....
  • Laminate flooring
    Laminate flooring

    Laminate flooring is type of flooring made of a laminate material. Laminate flooring is made to look like natural products such as wood flooring or natural stone, yet is made up of either synthetic materials or of synthetic materials combined with natural and recycled ingredients and covered with an attached decorative applique including a...
  • Hardwood flooring
  • Window treatment
    Window treatment

    Window treatments generally come in two varieties, hard and soft, based on the texture of the material used in the decoration.In interior decorating, a window treatment may refer to any of the following items placed over or around a window:...
  • Floor covering
  • Tile
    Tile

    A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock , metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, and walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops....
  • Ceramic
    Ceramic

    File:Bridge from dental porcelain.jpgFile:Qing vase p1070256.jpgA ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetal solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling....
  • Floor
    Floor

    A floor is the walking surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many-layered surfaces using modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal, or other material that can hold a person's weight....
  • Home improvement
    Home Improvement

    Home Improvement is an situation comedy starring Tim Allen, which aired 1991 to 1999. The show was created by Matt Williams , Carmen Finestra and David MacFadzean....


External links

  • — official website
  • — Empire's downloadable jingle
  • — from the Better Business Bureau
    Better Business Bureau

    The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is not a government agency, but a network of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work together through the Council of Better Business Bureaus ....
  • - official Empire Carpet video site
  • - official Empire Today video site
  • - Episode Jessica and Ima (November 27, 2007)
  • - Yahoo Finance
  • - Careerbuilder.com
  • - Official Empire Today Carpet Testimonial Site
  • - Official Empire Today Flooring Testimonial Site
  • - Official Empire Today Window Treatment Testimonial Site
  • - Official Empire Today Bath & Shower Liners Testimonial Site