Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Plumber Mascots

I noticed a service truck flying by me on the interstate today. It was one that I've seen in the Indianapolis Metro area quite a few times. The company is called "Williams Comfort Air" and they use a cartoon character or something called "Metzler's Mr. Plumber" as their mascot. Here's the best version of the logo I could find online...


Just seconds later another service truck from "Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber" shot by my car as well. Here' s look at their artwork...

Now the thing that gets me is why would a plumbing company (in this case, TWO plumbing companies) pick a seemingly old blind guy as their mascot. Metzler's Mr. Plumber is clearly squinting and using his hand to aid his vision while Franklin is known in history for creating bifocal glasses. On top of that he's also thought of as a pioneer in the understanding of electricity--which doesn't mix well with plumbing.

5 comments:

Reese said...

i just want to point out that in the first picture i'm pretty sure he is holding his hat up, not using his hand to help see lol

Toni said...

I dunno! But ya know what? My favorite company name can be found on a truck parked in a drive right across from the high school (I'm betting you've seen it too). It's a chimney sweep company called ASH WIPERS! :D

Randy Spradlin said...

Rog,

Boy, you got that right! Hmmm...water, electricity and someone that can see well all together! Kind of scary.

Randy

Anonymous said...

Might make for a beautiful coffee table book !(?)

Unknown said...

Well, I'm not certain about the first mascot, but aside from the fact that the second plumber's name is probably Benjamin Franklin, there are three genuine Franklin quotes that bear witness to the fact that he is an appropriate plumbing mascot...

“A good plumber is a continual Christmas.”

“A wipe a day keeps the hemorrhoids away.”

“A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a plugged-up john will surely spill over.”

It is appropriate to place Mr. Franklin on the side of a van because he did observe, “Drive thy business or it will drive thee.”