Hulett Receives Pair of National Advertising Awards

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Rice brothers, known for their whimsical TV commercials spoofing do-it-yourself pest control methods for Hulett Environmental Services, have received two national awards for their successful ad campaign.

Founded in 1968, Hulett Environmental Services, is one of the nation’s leading pest control businesses. Based in West Palm Beach, Hulett has nine offices in Florida with an additional two opening by year’s end.

Greg Rice, who is director of marketing for Hulett, and John Rice have produced and starred in more than 40 Bugmen commercials for Hulett since 1990. Regarded as pioneers in creating humorous pest control ads, their ads have inspired other pest control companies to do the same. The 30-second commercials appear throughout Florida on local broadcast stations and various cable stations, including Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.

The Bugmen commercials received one of the National Pest Management Association’s (NPMA) first-ever Pesty Awards recognizing innovation in pest management marketing. They were one of three TV commercial winners.
More than 45 companies submitted a total of 200 entries in eight categories, and winners were announced at the recent NPMA conference in Arizona.

Last year, the Bugmen commercials received two Silver Tellys, the top award at the annual Telly Awards. Founded in 1979, this international competition honors outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs and top video and film productions.  Judged by former Silver Telly winners, the competition receives over 10,000 entries.

“Greg and John’s marvelous wit and creative talents have played a major role in establishing Hulett throughout the state,” said Tim Hulett, president and entomologist. “Rather than preaching a marketing message they’ve made us laugh and that’s what people remember.”

Hulett noted that because of the success of the ads in Florida, pest control companies in other states have signed with Hulett to use them in their markets.

Using elaborate sets and costumes, the Bugmen ads show Greg and John in farcical bug-related situations. John, who writes the scripts, usually plays a bumbling do-it-yourselfer while Greg, the voice of reason, exclaims, “Let’
s call Hulett!”

The Bugmen are shown dealing with termites on Noah’s ark; in a space ship with other-worldly insects; fighting off giant insects in a nightmare sequence. They play cowboys on the range, cave men and construction workers, among other roles. They impersonate the Blues Brothers, singing “I’m a bug man,” and as Elvis with guitars they belt out, “Ain’t nothing but a termite…eating all the time.”