Energizer Bunny

The Energizer Bunny is the mascot of Energizer batteries in Canada, United States and Turkey. It is a pink mechanical toy rabbit with an Energizer battery wearing sunglasses and blue and black striped flip-flops that beats a bass drum bearing the Energizer logo.

History

The Energizer Bunny was first created as a parody of the Duracell Bunny, which first appeared in television advertising in 1973, in its "Drumming Bunny" commercial. Duracell had purportedly trademarked the drumming bunny character, but whether they had or not, said trademark had lapsed by 1988, providing Energizer an opening to create their own trademark.[1]

The first Energizer Bunny commercial was broadcast on United States television in 1988.[2][3]

1990s

In the 1990s advertisements featuring the Energizer Bunny were made by a variety of companies, including Industrial Light & Magic, Cafe FX and Method Studios. Eric Allard's All Effects Company however did the bulk of the live action Energizer Bunny building, maintenance and puppeteering with ILM taking over for later commercials.[8]

From 1993 to 1995, Energizer ran a series of commercials featuring a fictional rival battery called "Supervolt" including a Supervolt weasel mascot, which was an obvious lookalike of Duracell. As Supervolt's battery sales had fallen, the company's CEO (portrayed by Rip Torn) sought to neutralize the Energizer Bunny by targeting its battery. Supervolt's CEO sought out people who could help him. At this time, the position of the battery moved from its leg to its back.

In many of the associated commercials that followed, villains such as Darth Vader, the Wicked Witch of the West, Wile E. Coyote, Boris and Natasha, as well as a robotic flea, would try to destroy or capture the Bunny only to see complications arise when their devices using Supervolt batteries ran out or other circumstances allowed for the bunny's escape. In addition, a flock of vultures and a foxhunt would get exhausted trying to catch the Energizer Bunny and the Grim Reaper gave up waiting for the Energizer Bunny to come with him.

The "Blofeld" ad showed the quality of the product being advertised when it created complications for the villain – so as not to imply that Energizer was better than any other brand, as well as to encourage people to buy Energizer batteries for their smoke detectors.

The first ad starred a Blofeld-like evil genius (portrayed by Joss Ackland) who planned to use the Matter Disintegrator to destroy the battery. It shut down when the Supervolt batteries in it ran out.

The second ad starred King Kong where Supervolt's CEO gave him a reward card (for bananas). When cornering the Energizer Bunny on the Empire State Building, a woman who King Kong angered slammed a window down on his foot, causing him to fall off the Empire State Building.

Legal challenges

1990 Duracell trademark dispute

When Energizer's 1988 parody became an advertising success and Energizer trademarked its bunny, Duracell decided to revive the Duracell Bunny campaign and filed for a new United States trademark of its own, citing the original use of the character more than a decade earlier.[15] The dispute resulted in a confidential January 10, 1992 out of court settlement,[16] where Energizer (and its bunny) took exclusive trademark rights in the United States and Canada, and Duracell (and its bunny) took exclusive rights in all other places in the world, which caused the Energizer Bunny to be phased out in most countries. The Energizer Bunny was succeeded by Mr. Energizer, an anthropomorphic battery who appeared in Stop motion advertisements voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. In certain Latin American countries that kept the Energizer Bunny after 1992 and did not replace the character with Mr. Energizer, it coexists with Duracell Bunny.[17]

1991 Adolph Coors lawsuit

In 1991, Energizer Holdings unsuccessfully sued the Adolph Coors Company for copyright and trademark infringement for creating a parody of its Energizer bunny ads.[18]

The advertisement had comedian Leslie Nielsen banging a bass drum while wearing rabbit ears while the announcer said "It keeps growing and growing!" The court eventually sided with Coors noting the obvious facts that the content of the ad is substantially different considering Nielsen was not a toy and he did not run on batteries.[19]

2016 Duracell distribution lawsuit

In February 2016, Energizer filed a trademark infringement and contract violation lawsuit against Duracell. Energizer alleged that Duracell was using a pink bunny in its advertising in the United States, did not have any trademark rights in the United States in a pink bunny, and had violated an agreement between Energizer and Duracell governing the use of a pink bunny trademark in the U.S.[20] Duracell replied that the cases Energizer cited came from overseas distributors importing packages from abroad, and that Duracell did not have the specific power to stop those distributors from doing so.[21] In November 2017, a United States District court judge threw out most of Energizer's claims in a summary judgement, but leaving the breach of the 1992 territorial contract dispute active with respect to the two companies' bunny trademarks.[22]

History

1990s

2016

Campaign success

In popular culture

Legal challenges

1990 Duracell trademark dispute

1991 Adolph Coors lawsuit

2016 Duracell distribution lawsuit

External links

References

first	1988
lbl1	Company
data1	Energizer
species	Rabbit
affiliation	Energizer