Energizer Bunny

Energizer Bunny

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Energizer Bunny

The Energizer Bunny is the marketing icon and mascot of Energizer batteries. It is a pink rabbit wearing sunglasses and blue sandals that beats a bass drum. It has been appearing in television commercials since 1989. The Energizer Bunny does not appear in Europe and Australia where the rival Duracell Bunny is seen instead. In Australia and the UK the mascot for Energizer is a muscle-bound anthropomorphic battery.

Background
20th Anniversary Commercial
Notes
External links

Background

The American Energizer commercials, produced by DDB Chicago Advertising, originally began as a parody of TV advertisements for rival Duracell. In the Duracell ads, a set of battery-powered instrument-playing toy pink rabbits gradually slow to a halt until only the toy powered by a copper-top battery remains active. In Energizer's parody, the Energizer Bunny then enters the screen beating a huge bass drum and swinging a mallet over his head. The criticism was that Duracell compared their batteries with carbon batteries, and not similar alkaline batteries like Energizer.^[1] The creative team at DDB Chicago who conceived and designed the bunny chose All Effects special effects company to build the original Energizer Bunny, a remotely operated vehicle. All Effects operated the Energizer Bunny in most of its first commercials.

The Bunny was actually created by a special effects expert named Eric Allard. His son was swimming in a flotation device shaped like a rabbit, and his wife placed her sunglasses on the bunny to make her son laugh. Eric looked up from his paper, saw the bunny, and immediately ran into his workshop. Seven hours later he had finished his sketches for the new ideas of the Energizer company, and hence the Energizer Bunny was born.

As the series progressed, realistic-looking commercials were aired for fictional products (such as "Sitagin Hemorrhoid Remedy") only to have the Bunny march through. To date, the Energizer Bunny has appeared in more than 115 television commercials.^[2] In these commercials, a voiceover would announce one of various slogans used throughout the years; all of them would relate the stalwartness of the Energizer Bunny to the long-lasting power of their batteries. The original slogan boasted that "...[n]othing outlasts the Energizer...", but it was eventually changed after a lawsuit filed by Duracell disputing Energizer's claim.^[3]

In 1991, Energizer unsuccessfully sued the Adolph Coors Company for creating a parody of its Energizer bunny ads.^[4]

The term "Energizer Bunny" has entered the vernacular as a term for anything that continues indefatigably. Several U.S. presidential candidates have compared themselves to the bunny, including President George H. W. Bush in 1992 and Howard Dean in 2000.^[5]