Most Southern California residents will recognize Mr. Little, the logo of a local pest control company western exterminators and some others will recognize it thanks to Van Halen’s 1984 world tour.
They sponsor football on television, they sponsor everything, so why not sponsor Van Halen? So we went after a sponsor and tried to get them to put up some money and then we could be in their advertisements and help sell their stereos and their toothpaste or whatever, and nobody wanted us. I guess our image was wrong. So, we decided that we’ll be the first band to sponsor a company. So we took the logo from the Western Exterminator Company in Los Angeles – a little man with a top hat and a big hammer behind his back – and we put him on the T-shirt and the program and on the merchandise, and he is the tour logo. – David Lee Roth
But not many people realize he has a name, Mr. Little. Another little know fact is that the Western Exterminator Logo was created by pinstriper Von Dutch’s Dad. His dad was a well known designer, sign painter and goldleaf man in the South LA area known as Maywood. I can’t think of another corporate logo that has taken the risk of adding humor into their logo in a manner like this. It’s brilliant, sick and hilarious. I Love it,
one of my favorite logos and characters ever created.