One afternoon this month, an old Vine video featuring a clip from an extremely low-budget commercial for a Jones’ Good Ass BBQ & Foot Massage appeared in our Twitter timeline. Like the person who shared the 7-second video, we couldn’t stop watching it and wondering if Jones’ Good Ass BBQ & Foot Massage is, in fact, a real business. If so, we joked, it had to be something out of Maywood or some other predominantly Black Chicago suburb. No shade, but anyone who is Black and living in the Chicagoland area knows the darndest things happen in our suburbs.
In true social-media fashion, the mastermind behind the Vine perfectly edited the clip of restaurateur Toby Jones and his trusty mascot crew – a purple dinosaur and yellow chicken – dancing to the instrumental of R&B singer Monica’s “So Gone.” It reminded us of the classic Chicago commercials for Moo & Oink, the very real meat wholesaler which lasted from the 1930s or 40s through its closure in 2011.