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Moo & Oink was a Chicago, Illinois-based meat company and wholesaler.
The company was founded by Joe Lezak, whose family had a long history of selling meat products in Chicago. Its' original location was at the corner of 35th and Calumet Avenue on Chicago's South Side. Moo & Oink sold a variety of meats including pork, chicken, beef, and lamb. The company specialized in selling to soul food restaurants and BBQs. In the 1960s, the company moved to a larger location at 3831 S. Halsted Avenue in Bridgeport, Chicago.
Moo & Oink was well known for its promotional events and local advertisement campaigns. Its late-night television commercials played through the late 1970s into the 21st century. The company's mascots Moo (a cow) and Oink (a pig) were prominently featured in a long-running series of commercials featuring a boisterous rap by Pierre B. Johnson that debuted in 1982. In 2005, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler sang the opening verse of the jingle on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update in order to prove to Scott Podsednik that they were Chicago White Sox fans.
The company expanded in the 1980s to included branded products. These products were discontinued after a change in Moo and Oink management in October 2006. In April 2010, the remaining owners revealed a new company logo with updated art of the cow and pig characters. All Moo & Oink stores closed in 2011, after the company went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.[1] By the end of the year, the brand and trademark were sold to Best Chicago Meat. The stores remained unsold.[2]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Iconic Chicago meat store closes after 150 years. Chicago Tribune. October 1, 2011. Retrieved on October 1, 2011.
- ^ "Moo & Oink name bought as stores shuttered | News | Chicago Journal". March 3, 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.