The History of Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo

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Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo go all the way back to the 1950's. Yogi had met the owners of the Yoo-Hoo company (the Oliveri family) at a Country Club function near his home in New Jersey.

The product wasn't selling that well and they asked Yogi's opinion. He said he liked the soft drink and started promoting it. Soon Yogi put Yoo-Hoo on the map, by appearing in commercials, ads and supermarkets promotions. 

 He would show up at the factory in Carlstadt, New Jersey and was a hero to the factory workers. He became a Vice President of the company and owned a large amount of stock.

Yogi wrote in his auto biography "One time I was in the office and the phone rang, I always answer a ringing phone, the woman on the other end asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenated. I said, 'No ma'am, it's not even carbonated."

He was still involved with the company while he was coach & then manager of the Mets in the mid seventies. Eventually as the company's ownership kept changing at Yoo-Hoo, Berra sold his stock & cut his ties with the company.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I have an autographed card of Yogi promoting yoo-hoo. It says "Me for yoo-hoo."

If anyone is interested in it, please e-mail jnjohwy@hotmail.com.

I'd be glad to scan it for you.
November 30, 2010 at 6:57 PM
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