How Those Pigeons Came To Be Our Mascots
As a Phoenix resident, you have probably driven past a Hobaica billboard around town. And chances are, that billboard has had a picture of the Hobaica owners, Lou, Mike and Paul, all with birds on their heads. These birds, specifically, are pigeons, a pretty common bird in this country.
Did you ever wonder why in the world the owners of a home services company would choose to show themselves with pigeons on their heads? We get asked this question a lot, and for those who don’t know, it’s a pretty funny story!
It All Started With A Simple Sign
About 10 years ago, the team at Hobaica decided to put up billboards around town to advertise our services to the Phoenix area. Because we are a family-run business, it made sense to put our owners, Lou, Mike and Paul Hobaica, up on the billboards.
For extra effect, we thought it would look really cool to have their heads popping up from the top. We hoped that customers would take an extra look at this fun effect and think of us when they had a home services need. We’ve all seen the billboards that are a little bit different and noticed them, so with our heads extended we hoped more people would notice us!
Turns out, it wasn’t just customers who noticed our popped-out heads. The pigeons did, too.
Fun Facts About Pigeons
- There are more than 400 million pigeons worldwide. Their population is growing rapidly with the expansion of urban areas.
- Pigeons have been closely tied to humans for over 5,000 years, for food, entertainment and service.
- They have a very flexible diet and can well tolerate human food.
- Pigeons were used as mail carriers in both WWI and WWII. Historians estimate that numerous lives were saved as a result of their communication to and from the front lines.
- Pigeons are very intelligent creatures. They can recognize themselves in a mirror as well as all letters of the English language.
- Pigeons eat constantly and end up having to defecate up to 5 times an hour. Their feces is acidic and can cause damage to property and vehicles. (Take careful note of this fact).
The Problem With Our Billboard
After it was decided to have fun pop-out designs on our billboards, we instructed them to be put up all over town. And we really liked them! We want our clients to trust in our team, and what better way than to show pictures of our owners right there on a billboard?
It just so happened that Lou Hobaica’s head was the tallest cut-out on the billboard. And for a while, our signs looked great! But, after a few months, we noticed that Lou wasn’t looking so great anymore…. You guessed it, because of the pigeons.
Pigeons really enjoyed sitting on the top of the billboard to, well, do their business. Because of the acidity in their feces, that part of the billboard was ruined. Mainly…. Lou’s face.
A Solution For All
How do you control where pigeons land and do their business? Short of spikes or electric wires, you really can’t. However, we came up with a creative way to both have our owners pop out of the billboard and avoid pigeons defecating on their heads - by putting pigeon cut-outs on top of our owners’ heads!
Now the pigeons sit on top of their cut-outs on the billboards and our owner’s heads are safe from any damage. A nice solution all around!
We hope you enjoyed this story as much as we have enjoyed telling it over the years! Next time you drive by one of our billboards with the pigeons, make sure to wave at Lou, Mike and Paul, and the many pigeons who are probably hanging out there too.
See you next time, from your friendly team at Hobaica Services.
You’ll Lika…. Hobaica!!!!
