Bubba, Holder's Pest Control Roach

Bring back the roach, he's a true symbol of Houston!!!



Famed roach is only hiding
The 42-year-old neon bug may return to light
By DAVID KAPLAN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2648517

The giant neon cockroach glowed for 42 years and was a beacon for Southwest Freeway drivers. He glows no more.

Bubba, the 8-foot-tall, 16-foot-wide Holder's Pest Control roach, was taken down in April, but the sign could make a comeback.

You can't keep a big roach down, not when he's worth more than his weight in gold as a branding tool.

In 1998, Holder's moved to a southwest Houston shopping center that would not allow the display of a mammoth insect, so Bubba stayed behind. He was eventually taken down, because of an ordinance that forbids a commercial sign when the company has left the premises. Bubba now spends his days in a Holder's warehouse.

But Holder's wants Bubba back in the spotlight, said Jen Boedecker, marketing coordinator at Copesan Services, a national alliance of pest control companies that includes Holder's.

A number of businesses, mostly restaurants, have tried to buy Bubba, but Copesan is interested only in leasing the sign as a form of advertising.

"We'd consider putting him at someone else's site, as long as we maintained ownership," she said. "He's been like a mascot and is so highly recognized."

In terms of branding, Bubba is invaluable, said Kevin Keller, professor of marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College: "It's iconic and part of their equity."

Bubba is "heritage," and "when positioning a brand, it's very hard to compete against heritage," said Keller, who noted: "Anything that gets on consumers' radar matters. It's so hard to break through these days."

Bubba does have a way with people. When they took him down, Holder's received a number of e-mails, including this one:

"I've been watching for that roach as a landmark for most of my life, and I'll miss the old boy."

david.kaplan@chron.com