Will U.S. ballplayers resemble the peloteros of the Mexican League?

It’s always a bit of a jolt whenever I stumble across the baseball played in the Mexican League or any of the other professional leagues of Latin America – the ballplayers themselves are walking billboards.

No, they're NOT all named 'Coca-Cola'

Heck, in some cases the spot on a uniform jersey where we would expect to see a ballplayer’s name winds up being the brand-name of some company instead.

UNLESS YOU HAPPENED to believe that everybody playing for the team representing the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Series was named “Orange.” Which, in actuality, is a company that provides wireless services and also sells the SIM cards that are often used by people in Latin American countries to make international telephone calls.

My point being that there already is a portion of baseball that views the uniforms their ballplayers wear as yet another place where advertising can be placed – thereby generating even more revenue for the respective ball clubs.

That trend is coming to the United States.

For it seems that Major League Baseball officials are calling it “inevitable” that the uniforms of the Cubs and White Sox – and all the teams they play against – will have advertising patches placed upon them.

Diablos Rojos de Mexico? Or Banamex?

IT’S NOT KNOWN whether they’d be on the shoulder or across the chest, or if there’d be an effort to make them subtle or incredibly garish so that they are the predominant image. Reducing the Old English “Sox” logo or the interlocking “NY” of the Yankees to an afterthought.

It seems like this can’t happen before 2022 because the players’ association would have to give their approval to having their million-dollar ballplayers be reduced to serving as walking, running and throwing billboards for whichever corporate interest pays the teams the most money.

The Elgin watch 'clock' atop Comiskey, … 

Now I know some people are insisting the idea of advertising across the chest of Mike Trout is somehow blasphemous. Would we have ever dreamed of Babe Ruth becoming a pitch for a product?

… or the Budweiser 'rooftop'' outside of Wrigley?

But to me, I can’t help but wonder why this hasn’t occurred long ago.

BALLCLUBS HAVE ALWAYS used their ballparks as a source of advertising income – allowing companies to place tacky billboards all over their outfield walls and scoreboards.

In some cases, creating images that are regarded as a part of baseball’s history.

Who can forget the old “Schafer” beer sign on the scoreboard of Ebbets Field in Brooklyn (the “h” lit up for a hit and the “e” for an error)? Or the old right field wall at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, where the ad told us in no uncertain terms that “the Phillies use Lifebuoy” soap.

And any baseball fan worth their salt knows exactly what phrase was added on to the ad by a graffiti-ist.

HECK, EVEN IN Chicago, the old Comiskey Park scoreboard clock was an ad for Elgin watches. While one of my own memories of the first ballgame I went to as a kid was seeing the ad for Carta Blanca beer (which made the first time I actually tasted that cerveza brand a complete letdown).

To this day, baseball fans know the Phillies 'still stink' despite Lifebuoy

And while Wrigley Field denizens used to try to claim their ballpark maintained some sort of purity with no ads on the outfield walls, one can’t ignore that house across the street from left field that was turned into a giant Budweiser ad that everybody in the ballpark could see.

The point being that advertising is part of the character of baseball. And seeing how teams are eager to sell the naming rights to their stadiums themselves to the highest bidder, it probably is inevitable that the uniforms themselves will become space to be sold.

Which means we’ll probably get the day when fans will debate which players bear the most interesting advertising logos. And some smart-aleck will probably speculate that Ernie Banks couldn’t have been that special – nobody ever used his jersey for product placement!

  -30-

Is Equipo Mexico in the World Cup really the equivalent of Chicago Cubs?

It’s no secret that when it comes to the world of international soccer, I’m a follower of El Tri, as in the Tri-colors (a.k.a., the national futbol team of Mexico).

Donovan gets paired up … 

It’s also knowledge to anybody who has closely read this weblog throughout the years that I don’t have much use for the Chicago Cubs baseball club.

SO I HAVE to confess to feeling a touch of nausea when I learned of an advertising campaign trying to compare the chances of Team Mexico winning the World Cup to that of the Chicago Cubs winning a World Series.

Which, as Cubs fans will never let the rest of us forget, actually managed to happen two years ago. If that occurred, then perhaps the day is destined for the near future that Mexico’s national football team (also the arch-rival of the U.S. national soccer club) will see themselves as a real “world champion” of soccer.

A happening that, to Mexican fanaticos de futbol is a thought that usually includes a glance skyward – as though the whole affair is truly in the hands of the good lord himself.

Then again, I still recall the parody paper The Onion publishing a story following the Cubs’ World Series victory of 2016, telling of the riotous celebrations that occurred in Heaven following the Cubbies’ victory – with several Cubs fans being banished to Hell for their vandalism and other misbehavior.

SO WHAT’S THE connection between El Tri and the baby blue bears?

It seems that Modelo, a Mexican beer brand available in the United States, has new commercial spots featuring one-time Cubs player David Ross and Landon Donovan, who during his own playing career with the U.S. national team was often an antagonist of Team Mexico and a large part of the rivalry that has developed.

… with Ross in ad playing off alleged curses

But now, he’s saying that U.S. fans ought to root for Mexico (which plays its first World Cup match Sunday against Germany). It even claims that with the Cubs being able to break their “curse” (which really was little more than generations of ineptitude), it’s now time for Mexico to do the same.

Which in the case of the World Cup usually involves Mexican teams qualifying and making it past the first round of matches, but then ultimately losing once things become more competitive.

MEXICAN TEAMS HAVE never made it past el Quinto Partido (a fifth match, with a team ultimately needing to win eight matches during the next month in order to win the whole thing).

Now, the one-time Mexican villain of Donovan is talking in terms of Mexico prevailing. Although it seems some soccer fans in this country are willing to follow suit because of the lack of a U.S. team in the running.

The Morning Consult organization came out with a poll this week showing only 20 percent of people intending to watch the World Cup this year, although 77 percent of those who watched international soccer will tune in their television sets to the activity taking place in Russia.

Who they’re rooting for? It seems there are 11 percent each who will cheer for Mexico or England (could the British become the faves of those of us enamored with this Age of Trump that we’re now in, with the rest of us backing Equipo Mexico), with another 10 percent for Brazil (a perennial futebol powerhouse).

ALL I KNOW is that I’ll be tuning in on Sunday, along with June 23 (against South Korea) and June 27 (against Sweden) to see if Mexico can advance beyond the group play, while playing into the theme of Mexico being a Chicago Cubs equivalent.

Is '18 THE YEAR for losing ways to end?

Who knows? I may even have a few beers – although to be honest, I’m more likely to crack open a Dos Equis or a Tecate (sorry Modelo).

Although I’ll be honest in admitting I’ll take some joy from those people who go out of their way to feel miserable because they can’t enjoy “the beautiful game.”

The ones who want to think they’re the majority, even though that same poll showing only 20 percent will watch the World Cup also showed only 14 percent “very likely” to watch the Daytona 500 auto racing.

  -30-

We’re in for a month of Hell; a slew of ads warning us of pop, tax evils

I’m sure the people who are all outraged over the price of pop these days, what with the cost added due to the Cook County tax on sweetened beverage sales, feel a great injustice was done on Wednesday.
 

Heart Association wants pop tax

For the Cook County Board, after listening to hours of debate from people arguing both the merits and drawbacks of the pop tax, decided that the way to handle a proposed ordinance repealing the tax was to send it to a committee.

SPECIFICALLY, THE COUNTY board’s Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the issue, and only then will the measure come before the full county board for a final vote.

The crackpots who are upset that the cost of a 2-liter pop bottle is now about $0.65 more than it used to be probably had fantasies that the county board would immediately take a vote on the pop tax repeal ordinance, and that the tax would be ancient history by now!

I mock their line of logic in that our way of government is meant to be deliberate and slow – things don’t just get rammed through the process into action. Or at least they’re not supposed to be.

So the fact that we have to wait for the Finance Committee to have its next meeting scheduled for Oct. 10, with the next full county board session set for the following day? That’s the way things are supposed to be.

WHICH MEANS THAT, Yes, it’s true that the tax will remain in effect for at least one more month. But that could mean the political momentum could continue to build to a point where a majority of the county board will feel compelled to approve a repeal of the pop tax.

Or maybe the healthcare interests that want such a pop tax on the grounds it would discourage people from drinking so many carbonated beverages will be able to make their case to the point where county board officials will feel compelled to leave well enough alone and let the pop tax remain in place.

That’s the democratic process in action. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. As for the people who are upset that the county board couldn’t be strong-armed on Wednesday to giving them what they want?

 

Retailers don't want to collect tax for Cook County

All I can say is that such talk sounds downright un-American!

I’LL ADMIT TO finding it annoying to open my mailbox to see the assorted fliers being sent to me to try to spin me and others to believe their side of the issue. It’s feeling like an Election Day is pending, and at a time when we’re bracing ourselves for the level of partisan nonsense we’re getting from the gubernatorial dreamers.

It’s like we never get a break from the politicking. Which is, I’ll admit, a hell-ish sense to have to feel.

But I’d be more bothered by strong-arm tactics. The sense that the process will allow both sides to make their arguments, with the majority sentiment prevailing, does provide a sense of relief.

Now as I have written before, I support the idea of this particular tax because I realize Cook County government has financial obligations to meet and needs the income. I suspect that people will really start complaining if those obligations, particularly the ones related to providing health care services to the public, are not met.

SO WHILE I am not enthused about the idea of a tax, the alternatives strike me as being worse.

Besides, the reality is that if sentiment against this tax is really so intense, then there will be a future chance to express ourselves. Because there are those future election cycles in which county board President Toni Preckwinkle and the county board members who voted for the tax will have to face re-election.

Political people who backed the pop tax could easily find themselves out on their keisters come the 2018 election cycle. It’s a political risk that elected officials have to take with every single vote they cast.

Turning out a politician who disappoints us? That’s about as all-American a concept as we have!

  -30-

EXTRA: A glass of Nestle Quik for Batman in the Great Beyond?

We've been reliving the campiness of the 1960s-era Batman that gave us actor Adam West as the Caped Crusader, what with West's departure from this realm of existence.

Personally, I still find the most ludicrous moment in the 1966 film that fed off the television series to be the one where Batman is pulled from the ocean by a helicopter -- only to find a shark gnawing on his leg.

OF COURSE, BATMAN was able to cope with the situation because he just happened to have Bat Shark Repellant spray tucked away in his utility belt. Between that, and any moment involving either Julie Newmar or Eartha Kitt as Catwoman, and a chuckle can always crop up on my face.

About to bust out to be hunted down by Batman

But among the tidbits that came up in the assorted obituaries was the fact that West got the part of Batman because of his appearances in Nestle's Quik commercials -- featured as Agent Q, a parody of a suave, debonair type. Just perfect for millionaire Bruce Wayne who uses his fortune to pay for all those goodies he uses to fight crime!

And yes, after watching this aging television spot, I'm sure that Agent Q could kick Austin Power's behind any day of the week, then take down Dr. Evil and all the other characters of that ridiculous world all before settling down to fighting a real villain in the form of the Clown Prince of Crime himself.

After all, you have to give some credit to a super villain like the Joker, who as played by actor Cesar Romero wouldn't give up his mustache and had it covered over with face paint.

  -30-

EXTRA: Gimme un cerveza

I couldn't help but notice the reports Friday about the change in brands of brews to be made available at Chicago White Sox games beginning this season.

No more Miller Beer products. No more Miller Lite. No more "tastes great, less filling" debates in between verbal brawls about why the White Sox are playing so putridly.

THERE'S ALSO THE part of the announcement that has Modelo Especial becoming the official import beer sponsor of the White Sox.

Which sounds like something exotic, until one realizes that Modelo brand beer is one of several Mexican brews owned by Grupo Modelo, which is part of the larger conglomerate that already owns Anheuser Busch products.

In short, Budweiser!

Although to tell you the truth, the notion of Mexican beers being available at White Sox games is something I can remember as far back as the first games I ever went to at Comiskey Park back in the 1970s.

BACK THEN, AMONG the advertising signs displayed in the ballpark were ones for Carta Blanca, a brand I occasionally drink. Because when it comes to a Mexican brand of cerveza, I'm more likely to desire a Tecate.

And as for those who want to think that Miller brand beer products are an essential part of the White Sox experience, I recall the days when Harry Caray was the face of the White Sox who guzzled down Falstaff beer because that was the ball club's sponsor.

All that "Cub Fan and a Bud Man" nonsense came along later when Caray became an aging caricature of the Hall of Fame-quality broadcaster he had once been in St. Louis and on the Sout' Side.

Besides, when I think about baseball and beer, I remember the 9 bucks I had to pay the last time I actually splurged for a cup of mediocre brew at the structure now known as Guaranteed Rate Field.

WHICH, TO MY mindset, is way too much to pay for a drink. I wonder how anyone is capable of getting seriously plastered at a ballpark these days. It costs too much, unless they're literally sneaking the liquor into the ballpark with them.

Although I'll have to admit that watching the World Baseball Classic matchup Friday between the United States and Colombia was frustrating.

What with the way White Sox ace Jose Quintana pitched near no-hit ball for five innings and left the game with a two-run lead -- only to see his team's relief pitchers immediately blow the lead!

Certainly one of those moments where I wish I had a supply of cerveza readily on hand. Perhaps a Carta Blanca, to trigger old beisbol memories of the days of peloteros such as Jorge Orta and Francisco Barrios.

  -30-

EXTRA: In your guts, you know he’s nuts -- will we soon hear of Trump?

How long until we start getting parody campaign buttons along these lines?

For Democrat political operatives with a sense of history already are using the Internet to disseminate an old television spot from the 1964 presidential campaign; one in which an actor portrays a would-be Republican voter who can’t handle the notion of accepting the GOP nominee – Barry Goldwater – for that election cycle.

I DO FIND it intriguing that political observers of a Republican orientation often like to claim that the 1964 election was the one in which Democrats did themselves serious harm by creating the impression that the Republican Party was the one that would appeal to people of a conservative ideological bent.

Which led to the Southern Strategy of Richard M. Nixon in the ’68 election cycle and a series of future campaign strategies that one could claim have culminated with the conservative takeover of the political process that allowed Donald Trump to gain the Republican nomination this year.

We could be going through a bit of Goldwater nostalgia to remind us of the long-time senator from Arizona who made his bid for national prominence some 52 years ago.

How long until Trump-ites retaliate by reminding us that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was, herself, one of the famed “Goldwater Girls” who came from a family of Republicans from suburban Park Ridge – or at least  until their daughter went off and experienced the Sixties while in college.

IN SHORT, WE could be getting more than our share of Barry Goldwater nostalgia in coming weeks as we remember the candidacy who, for good or bad, motivated the conservative ideologues of our nation into action.

Although the day we see a parody spot of “Daisy” against Trump, that’s probably when the nostalgia kick will have gone too far.

  -30-

Rival states take their pot-shots at Illinois, Land of Lincoln fights back!!!

It’s not at all odd to see the states of the Great Lakes region compete amongst each other to gain some sort of edge in the public eye – I’m old enough to remember those “Gov. Thompson (as in Tommy, not Jim) Welcomes You to Wisconsin” signs that used to greet people driving north on Interstate 94 out of Illinois.

We don't always play nice w/ each other

Or all those “Illinoyed” billboards that Indiana used as part of a state campaign to try to encourage businesses to relocate to the Hoosier state.

IT WORKED IN terms of drawing some small companies across the border – to parts where they’d still be close to Illinois and the Chicago metro area, which was the source of their real business.

But it never managed to draw anything huge away from Illinois – after all, no matter what the lower tax rates would be, you’d still be in Indiana. “You get what you pay for” is the rule that ought to apply here.

The point of this recollection is that it’s not new for the Midwestern states bound together by their proximity to Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes to see each other as rivals.

So perhaps it shouldn’t be odd to learn that the Whole Foods chain of high-scale supermarkets is making a move of its distribution center that provides goods to their Chicago-area stores.

THAT DISTRIBUTION CENTER had been located in Munster, Ind. – a municipality located right on the Illinois/Indiana border across from suburban Lansing.

EMANUEL: A late Valentine's Day gift?

It’s now moving to the Pullman neighborhood in Chicago proper – a site that offers one major asset that Munster could never have competed with. The Pullman neighborhood is right on the Bishop Ford Freeway, which leads into the Dan Ryan Expressway.

In fact, the site of the new center to open in 2018 will be right on the freeway. It will be easy for Whole Foods trucks to hop right onto the highway, then go anywhere in the Chicago metro area to make deliveries of goods to be sold in their supermarkets. As opposed to now, where those trucks have to fight their way through the traffic mess that often is the Borman Expressway (we really do need the Illiana to be built) before they can get into Chicago.

There may have been some sort of tax break that Munster could have offered through the fact that Indiana does hit its businesses with lesser rates. But they also can’t offer the amenities that a Chicago or Illinois can. You pay more, but you also get more.

Strengthening Midwest presence with Chicago

I’LL ADMIT IT probably was a bit cold for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be seen snickering and to refer to the move as a “late Valentine’s Day (gift) to Indiana,” but it certainly wasn’t any more colder than the trash talk that the surrounding states usually spew – often by trying to portray Chicago as some sort of hellhole that draws everything down.

Which, to me, often sounds like the petty whining of places that realize they can never match Chicago’s many amenities.

Now I don’t mean this as an Indiana-bashing session. Heck, I do work for one of the daily newspapers in Northwest Indiana and often spend time in Gary itself. Which for the record is a place that has so much potential, but can’t seem to get itself together for so many reasons – many of which are beyond its control.

There are times when I think Lake County and the surrounding areas of Northwest Indiana ought to just de-annex from the land of Hoosiers and become a part of Illinois. Maybe our people could make Gary succeed – rather than the Indiana officials who, at times, seem obsessed with the idea of holding that city down.

Could we do better with it?

BUT IT’S NOT likely there will be any shift any time soon of the Illinois/Indiana border from its current location between Chicago and Hammond to some place east of Valparaiso.

But our state may have accomplished something greater for the public image. For it seems the advertising professional who created that “Illinoyed” campaign for Indiana state government now works for Illinois.

Crain’s Chicago Business reported the newly-created Illinois Business and Development Corp. hired Kelly Nicholl – who as it turns out never gave up her condominium in downtown Chicago, even while working out of Indianapolis.

Illinoyed no more?

Perhaps even she couldn’t bear the thought of being too close to the rest of Indiana, which will now be the target of Illinois’ attacks!

 

  -30-

EDITORS NOTE: For those of you who'd like to read the Hoosier perspective, WBEZ-FM's Northwest Indiana correspondent provides a comprehensive report.

EXTRA: Where’s the news?!?

What we saw in the news box

I almost feel like Clara Peller ought to come crawling out of the woodwork to do commercials for the Chicago Tribune – she could be the one bellowing at copies of  the anemic Chicago Sun-Times “Where’s the news?!”

For that would be particularly appropriate on Tuesday, when the “front” page of the newspaper had the “The King’s got a Whopper…” headline along with a giant photo of that ridiculous looking monarch who touts Burger King “food.”

The front page buried behind it

WHEN I FIRST saw that front page, I first thought there was some sort of scandalous story concerning the fast-food chain’s products. Perhaps lame jokes about Chipotle’s mediocre food products were going to become passe, and a new target of gags had come forth.

Then, I saw that the front was actually a four-page wraparound of the REAL newspaper, and that it was totally covered in a Burger King ad – touting the fact that the chain was going to start selling hot dogs.

Lame hot dogs covered in ketchup that have the appearance of those overpriced dogs sold at movie theater concessions stands. Not something I’m the least bit ever anxious to eat.

 

It certainly made the Tribune's front page of stories about mosque hostility, a suburban school district's boundary issues and Donald Trump's latest nonsense (about the Ricketts family) seem downright substantive by comparison.

I REMEMBER THE time when front page advertising was considered truly garish – something for tacky buffoons to engage in because they didn’t have any news product worth promoting.

You'll get a better hot dog here. All photographs by Gregory Tejeda

Now, we have the idea of the advertising being the primary product on the front – and also on Page Three of the actual newspaper, which was another full-page ad touting those Burger King hot dogs.

Somehow, I sense a flop of magnificent proportions coming upon us – while I realize there are people with a palate weak enough to think something like Domino’s pizza is actually a quality product, I just can’t envision anything from a Burger King appealing to anybody beyond the age of six.

With the Sun-Times so solidly touting this new product, how much does its eventual demise take them down?

AND WHILE I realize that the Sun-Times probably charged a significant amount for this four-page advertising wraparound plus a full-page ad in the newspaper proper, this doesn’t exactly make the newspaper the equivalent of a high-priced call girl.

 

Proper hot dog condiments

The Bright One comes across more as a cheap floozy who suckered a drunk into overpaying for said services.

Let’s just hope the newspaper is satisfied with their cash flow – as short-lived as it will be.

And somewhere, Clara Peller is rolling over in her grave – even she wouldn’t get involved in an advertisement this tacky!

  -30-

When will pop become verboten?

I can remember the day when those “The Real Cost” television spots that portray cigarette smoking as a disgusting, vile and all-around grotesque habit would have been considered downright subversive.

Satchel avoided fried foods, should he lose the pop bottle?

It is the changing attitude of our society that those who smoke are now looked upon as weak-willed and spineless – otherwise they’d have no problem quitting something that is going to wind up rotting away their lungs.

NOW IN MY case, that is one habit I never managed to acquire. Something about the smell just always turned me off.

But I am a person who enjoys the occasional Coca-Cola. Or a 7-Up or Dr. Pepper from time to time.

I always suspected that too much in the way of carbonated beverages probably wasn’t good for one’s health. Then again, too much of any one thing isn’t good. Balance, and moderation, are the keys to truly taking care of oneself.

But I now wonder how long it will be before those vintage television spots of young people singing how they’d “like to buy the world a Coke” will seem as ridiculous and absurd as those old cigarette ads that purported to have medical doctors endorsing specific tobacco products.

THINK I’M KIDDING? My thought is reinforced by the fact that the people at City Hall are contemplating a penny-per-ounce tax hike on syrups and powders, along with canned and bottled drinks.

It used to be thought of as healthy and refreshing

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Illinois Restaurant Association is planning a lobbying effort against the tax hike – pointing out there already are two other taxes that apply to soft drinks.

Those include a 9 percent fountain drink tax on syrup and a 3 percent tax on cans and bottles.

The restaurant association contends that bolstering the cost of that 2-liter bottle of pop or can of Coke will wind up hurting sales to the point that people will wind up losing their jobs. Raising this tax to bolster municipal revenues will wind up doing greater harm to the economy – or so the association says.

The future of pop advertising?

WHICH STRIKES ME as being similar to the arguments that get made whenever a government entity decides it needs to raise money by raising the taxes on tobacco products – which already make the cost of buying a pack of cigarettes much higher in Chicago than anywhere else!

We hear how it is defeatist because raising the price of cigarettes will make them too expensive, and wind up backfiring against the level of revenue that is expected to be raised.

We also hear how we’d be doing society a greater favor by discouraging some people from smoking in the first place. Are we going to start hearing talk about how we’re bolstering the health of Chicagoans by making them want to drink something other than pop?

How long will it be before some people start claiming it is some sort of Constitutionally-protected Freedom of Expression (as in the First Amendment) to drink Coca-Cola without being told how bad it is for them?

OR IN THE case of some deluded people, their Pepsi Cola (which was just always too sweet for my own taste).

I realize the level of sugar that goes into a serving of pop can be fattening. Although I think the key to dealing with it is more exercise. Or perhaps more doses of ice-chilled water – which I’ll admit to personally enjoying just because I always feel like it helps to clean out my insides.

How long will it be before some advocacy group takes up the cause of carbonated beverages, depicting their drinkers as being some sort of rotting-away bumpkins who guzzle down too much “sodee?”

Or maybe they’ll dig one-time Pittsburgh Steeler “Mean Joe” Greene out of retirement to make a commercial where he denounces that day where he ever took that kid’s bottle of Coke?

  -30-

Lenell cookies a new lost icon, just like Magikist lips or Empire Carpet guy

“If you like the cookies, the story I’ll tell,
About a fine baker, named Maurice Lenell.

“He came here from Sweden, to bake and to sell,

The wonderful cookies, of Maurice Lenell.

“One taste will tell, that Maurice Lenell, cookies are just simply … good!”

  -0-

Soon to be no more!

Now, it’s just an advertising jingle relegated to the junk yards of our minds that are cluttered with all sorts of trivia collected through our lives. Maurice Lenell cookies will soon be no more.

The company that has been producing them in recent years has decided it’s no longer financially worth their time or effort to do so.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported Thursday that the current supply of Lenell-brand cookies in places like The Cookie Store and More are it – there will be no replenishment of supplies once they run out.

Although it should be pointed out that the Lenell family that founded the company in the 1920s with a bakery that expanded greatly throughout the years sold their financial interest back in 1985. The new owners closed the iconic company’s factory on Harlem Avenue in suburban Norridge in 2007.

Which for one summer back some three decades ago I actually lived near. It always shocked me to learn the number of people who thought it cool to live near the real-life Maurice Lenell factory. Yes, I am old enough to remember the smell of the cookies baking when one passed through the neighborhood.

It has been quite a while since Lenell cookies were something you could easily find on your store shelves. They had become something that certain people would scavenge stores for – just like Faygo root beer – to bring back some sort of childhood memories.

How do people give directions now w/o the Lips?

MY OWN MEMORY of the company go back to that advertising jingle that was featured in television spots that aired on many programs that were geared toward Chicago-area children.

Such as Ray Rayner or Garfield Goose. Or as my brother, Chris, recalls, a sizable supply of Lenell-brand cookies were among the prizes offered on Bozo’s Circus for those individuals fortunate enough to get a chance to play the Grand Prize Game (I went to grammar school with one such girl – she washed out on Bucket Number Three).

Which is why, as I write this, I can’t get that jingle out of my head. I may have to torture myself with something by Culture Club or the 1910 Fruitgum Company to force it out of there.

It has been awhile since we've seen Hauldren's real image on television

Perhaps it is just a desire to hang on to portions of the Chicago of my youth – some of which probably make no sense to the younger generation. Just as how I always expect to see that whitewashed brick colossus as I approach 35^th Street on the Dan Ryan Expressway – only to realize Comiskey Park was torn down 25 years ago.

THE JINGLE WILL go along with another iconic image that used to exist on the Dan Ryan – the Magikist carpet cleaning company that hasn’t been in business since 2001.

Remember those giant red lips that lit up there, along with locations along the Eisenhower and Edens expressways? How many people used to give directions to their homes by telling people how far they lived from the lips?

Which would make us think those people were imbibing a bit too much on the cooking sherry, until we drove into their neighborhoods and suddenly saw those giant lips hovering over us? Then, it made sense.

I’ll have to confess to sensing a gaping hole, of sorts, at 85^th Street when I no longer see those lips looking down on me as I pass by on the Dan Ryan.

JUST AS IT also seems odd whenever we see the animated image of Lynn Hauldren in the television commercials for Empire Today. The real-life Hauldren when he was alive was the Empire Carpet Guy, whose company could easily be reached at 588-2300.

Bring back real Sanders image?

In fact, I suspect most of you had no clue who I was talking about until I gave the company’s telephone number – which you’re probably now singing in your own minds.

Yet another iconic image from Chicago’s past that continues on.

Although definitely not as lame (my brother insists “creepy” is the proper word) as actor Darrell Hammond’s attempt bring life to Col. Sanders. That would be one image we’d all be better off forgetting!

  -30-

Can Obama’s “Rahm plea” overcome Wilson’s millions in campaign cycle?

It will be interesting to see how the airwaves war in South and West side Chicago plays out in coming weeks.


Willie Wilson, the one-time McDonalds operator who turned those franchises into a fortune, has made it clear he plans to spend some millions of dollars of his own money to buy airtime on the radio stations appealing to inner-city Chicago – in hopes of being able to achieve the old days where a black mayoral candidate could take 98-99 percent of the African-American vote.

BUT IT SEEMS Mayor Rahm Emanuel is fighting back in his own way to try to get at least a sizable segment of black voters to cast ballots for him – he’s trotting out the president.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported how Emanuel’s campaign will have spots on black-oriented radio featuring Barack Obama, telling us how much better off Chicago will be if we get “four more years” of Rahm as mayor.

Can the one-time Hyde Park neighborhood resident and far South community activist still have enough support amongst black Chicago that enough African-American voters will vote for Emanuel and Wilson won’t have a dominant slice of the overall Chicago electorate? Considering that a recent poll by Lake Research Partners shows Wilson with only 5 percent support overall (with 30 percent still undecided), he has to dominate black voters to avoid electoral embarrassment.

Anything is possible, I suppose. Although a part of me wonders if we’re now going to start hearing the same whispers that initially came up back in 2007 when Obama let it be known he was even interested in running for president – he’s not ‘black’ enough.

WILL WILSON BACKERS – who include the outspoken one-time alderman and state senator Rickey Hendon – be willing to engage in trash talk against Obama; implying that a man with a seventh-grade education like Wilson is more in touch with their lives than is the Harvard Law-educated Obama?

Heck, it was that kind of attitude that caused Obama to suffer the one political loss of his life – getting his behind whupped by still-Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., when Obama had visions of serving in Congress.

I don’t believe the “Obama” name automatically draws support for Emanuel in any significant number – although it could mean that Wilson’s support drops to about three-quarters of the African-American vote (and complete irrelevance in the rest of Chicago).

So I’m waiting to see what the reaction will be, and just how strong a factor race will wind up being in this particular election cycle.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED during the past three decades since the days of Harold Washington fighting for his seat in City Hall. I don’t expect there will be quite the blunt-spoken attacks on either man.

Even in Washington, Obama doesn’t get quite the rhetoric from his GOP enemies that Washington got from Edward R. Vrdolyak during the “Council Wars” days of the mid-1980s!

But how much will it help Obama in his possible return to the Chicago scene if he gets so publicly identified as not being with the people who are determined to “Dump Rahm!!!” at all costs. Although considering that Obama is relying on Emanuel to push through a proposal that will result in the eventual presidential library and museum to be located in Chicago, the two men are already tied together.

I don’t doubt the sincerity of those people who are still peeved that their neighborhood schools got shut down in a cost-cutting measure – although I still think those people would have been better off fighting for improved education opportunities, rather than to keep existing schools that had become quite third-rate!

WILL WILSON HAVE the nerve to take on the president? Or will it be his operatives; some of whom have histories of being willing to engage in trash talk that allegedly respectable people would never say publicly?

I’ll be honest; this election cycle has been quite a dud thus far. Sure some people are upset with the incumbent, but I haven’t really seen anything to indicate any of the challengers are capable of taking that discontent and turning it into political support.

This almost has the feel of an election where people decide not to bother to vote – rather than turn out in force for someone else. In short, Emanuel wins due to political apathy!

And we have to put up with “four more years” of whining and screaming about who’s to blame.

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Would Harold still hold a grudge against the Mighty Quinn?

“I would never appoint Pat Quinn to do anything. Pat Quinn is a totally and completely undisciplined individual who thinks this government is nothing but a large easel on which to do his PR work.

 

“He was dismissed; he should’ve been dismissed. My only regret is that we hired him and kept him too long.”

 

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Those were the words of then-Mayor Harold Washington back in 1987 to explain the dismissal of the city’s director of revenue following only an eight-month stint in the job.

 

That director, of course, was Pat Quinn – who by that time had already been involved in the “Cutback Amendment” that reduced the size of the Illinois House of Representatives by one-third. He had yet to be elected to the post of Illinois treasurer, lieutenant governor or governor, nor to run any of the unsuccessful campaigns he tried in the late 1990s for the U.S. Senate or Illinois secretary of state.

 

THOSE WORDS ALSO are being used these days in a campaign ad that uses video of Washington speaking, then tells the voters we should “fire” Pat Quinn come Nov. 4 (a.k.a., Election Day).

 

This particular advertising spot came a couple of days after Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner touted his endorsement by a collection of African-American ministers – many of whom had previously offered their support to Rauner individually.

 

It is part of the continuing effort by the Rauner campaign to hurt Quinn’s standing amongst African-American votes (where theoretically he could get up to 90 percent support).

 

Create a sense of apathy amongst black voters, and perhaps Rauner’s coalition of rural residents and business-type executives can be large enough to win the election for Illinois governor.

 

THERE’S JUST ONE problem with this strategy; the tidbit being used this time to motivate this line of thought is so old and unimaginative.

 

For all Rauner’s campaign has done is recycled the theme of one of the campaign ads that Dan Hynes used in his 2010 Democratic primary campaign against Quinn for governor.

 

He also reminded us of what Washington once had to say about Quinn.

 

For that matter, I have heard many political people of both major party persuasions use the fact that “Washington fired Quinn” as one of their talking points about how Quinn is somehow less-than-legitimate.

 

ACTUALLY, IF YOU study what Washington actually said (particularly that line about the “large easel on which to do his PR work”), it is so in line with what so many political people said about Quinn – he puts the “causes” he touts front-and-center, and isn’t afraid to embarrass his alleged colleagues if it helps bolster himself.

 

A “phony reformer,” is a phrase I have heard used to describe Quinn by so many people I can’t even begin to recall them all.

 

This is an old attack. It is why Quinn had little to no trouble swatting it aside when he started to get questioned about it on Wednesday. Heck, Quinn should probably have put a response to this on tape years ago. Then, he could just play that segment in response to the Washington attack whenever anyone tries to resort to using it against him.

 

All of this is to say that my response to learning of the latest Rauner campaign rhetoric was to wonder why his people couldn’t come up with something original. Unless they want to believe that black voters will mindlessly follow their “leader” when they cast ballots on Election Day.

 

SOMEHOW, I JUST don’t see that happening.

 

And as for the debate some are taking now as to whether Washington would have ever forgiven Quinn (the mayor died shortly after this firing occurred), I can’t help but think that Washington would have been like many other people will be come this election cycle.

 

He’d hold his nose and vote for Quinn against the “rich guy” who seems to think all the money he can afford to put into his own campaign gives him a sense of intelligence and know-how.

 

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