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21-588: Mallory Duracell launched the Duracell Bunny campaign in 1973, with the "Drumming Bunny" television advertisement, created by the Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency. The ad depicted several pink toy bunnies drumming. By the end of the spot, only one was still running – that being the one powered by a Duracell alkaline battery . The advertisement claimed that Duracell batteries ran several times longer than other batteries, adding as

42-480: 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. Dancer Fitzgerald Sample Dancer Fitzgerald Sample ( DFS and later DFS-Dorland ) was a Madison Avenue advertising agency during the 20th century. It was founded in Chicago in 1923, and

63-463: A confidential out-of-court settlement on January 10, 1992, whereby Energizer took exclusive trademark rights in the United States and Canada, and Duracell took exclusive rights in all other places in the world. 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

84-433: A new company, DFS Management, to buy out the company's 202 shareholders, ultimately merging the new company with Saatchi's much smaller Dorland Advertising under the name DFS Dorland Worldwide . The deal was structured to avoid conflicts of interest between Dancer Fitzgerald's and Saatchi's client bases, but Saatchi & Saatchi would have the option to take complete control at any time. At that time, Dancer Fitzgerald Sample

105-470: A small footnote that it was being compared to older technology zinc-carbon batteries . When the Duracell Bunny debuted in North America in 1973, it was slated to be just a one-shot character in the "Drumming Bunny" advertisement. Duracell purportedly trademarked their bunny, but by 1988, that trademark had lapsed. Sensing an opportunity, Duracell's North American rival Energizer created a parody of

126-539: Is an American animation studio based in Costa Mesa, California . It was founded in 1948 by American animator Jay Ward . As of 2022, the studio was headed by Ward's daughter, Tiffany Ward, and granddaughter, vice president Amber Ward. Before 2022, when the studio signed a distribution deal with WildBrain , the Jay Ward catalogue was managed by Bullwinkle Studios , a joint venture between Jay Ward Productions and

147-672: The DreamWorks Animation subsidiary of NBCUniversal . The company was based on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood , across Sunset Boulevard from the Chateau Marmont . By 2002, Jay Ward Productions had formed Bullwinkle Studios LLC, a joint venture with Classic Media (then an Entertainment Rights subsidiary), to manage the Jay Ward characters. Bullwinkle Studios's first production was George of

168-444: The U.S. Navy in 1942. Hummert left the company at the end of 1943, forming Hummert Radio Productions with his wife Anne . Sample, after unsuccessful attempts to buy out the absent Blackett, announced that they would allow the firm to dissolve when their partnership agreement expired in 1944, and that he would enter a new partnership with B-S-H president Howard M. "Mix" Dancer at that time. These plans were later altered to terminate

189-564: The "Drumming Bunny" in 1988. Energizer's parody ad began much as Duracell's original 1973 ad did, except that midway through the discussion of which drumming rabbit would last longest, it was interrupted by the Energizer Bunny , a different pink rabbit wearing sunglasses, flip-flops, and beating a bass drum. Energizer created a multi-year campaign around the Energizer Bunny. There are significant differences in appearance between

210-525: The Crime Dog . A famous line to come out of DFS in the 1980s was the pop-culture hit " Where's the beef? " created for Wendy's by DFS creative director Cliff Freeman. In 1973, they created the Duracell Bunny , which has become an icon in all countries except the United States and Canada. Jay Ward Productions Jay Ward Productions, Inc. (sometimes shortened to Ward Productions )

231-553: The DFS/Dorland merger would be unwound, and it would pay $ 25 million to buy out the remaining minority shareholders and merge DFS with its other US unit, Saatchi & Saatchi Compton. At that point the merged business became the largest agency in New York with billings of $ 2.3 billion. The consolidation ended DFS's relationship with Dorland, which at that point was the third-largest London agency. In 1979, DFS created McGruff

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252-528: The Jungle with Studio B Productions , a unit of DHX Media. The series was broadcast on Teletoon , then added to Cartoon Network . Jay Ward's daughter, Tiffany Ward, is the president of Ward Productions and Bullwinkle Studios. Classic Media was acquired in 2012 by DreamWorks Animation , which was later purchased by the Comcast -owned NBCUniversal in 2016. On February 3, 2022, Jay Ward Productions signed

273-477: The London firm. DFS purchased Val-Mar Studios, a Mexican animation studio in 1959, and became Gamma Productions . It used the studio to produce television cartoons for Jay Ward Productions and Total Television ; the studio closed in 1968. Its productions remain in reruns , distributed through The Program Exchange . DFS founded Program Syndication Services in 1973 and The Program Exchange in 1979. DFS acquired

294-430: The United States, did not have any trademark rights in the United States for a pink bunny, and had violated an agreement between Energizer and Duracell governing the use of a pink bunny trademark in the U.S. 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. In November 2017,

315-429: The bunny spoke for the first time, with its voice being provided by American voice actor and writer Miles Luna. 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, referencing the original use of the character more than a decade earlier. The resulting dispute resulted in

336-613: The center of the television business. Dancer Fitzgerald entered the European market in 1970, joining forces with the UK firm Dorland Advertising Holdings to form DFS-Dorland International through an exchange of stock among the two companies' owners. The combined firms reported $ 237 million in revenues at the time. DFS unwound its interests in DFS-Dorland International in 1979, while maintaining business connections with

357-478: The much smaller Gilbert, Felix & Sharf agency in 1979. That same year, DFS left its long-time 347 Madison Avenue office space and two other Manhattan locations to consolidate in the Chrysler Building . After three years of discussions, on February 24, 1986, Saatchi & Saatchi agreed to fund a $ 75 million management buyout of Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, under which five DFS managers would create

378-473: The partnership earlier, on January 1, 1944, with Blackett forming his own firm and Dancer and Sample adding as a partner Clifford L. Fitzgerald, then a B-S-H vice president and director. Sample left the agency in 1948 and moved full-time to Florida, where he became a real-estate developer; Dancer died while on vacation in Antigua in 1958. The company itself moved from Chicago to New York in 1948 to be closer to

399-497: The two companies' mascots — the Energizer Bunny wears sunglasses, has larger ears, is a different shade of pink, and has a different body shape. Also, while the Energizer Bunny is a single rabbit, the Duracell Bunnies are a species. The Duracell Bunny advertising campaign has evolved, and Duracell Bunnies are usually depicted as doing something other than beating a drum as they did in the original 1973 advertisement. In 2019,

420-458: Was acquired and merged into the Saatchi & Saatchi network in the 1980s. The agency was founded in 1923 by Hill Blackett and John Glen Sample, in Chicago. E. Frank Hummert joined the agency in 1927, and it was renamed Blackett-Sample-Hummert, even though Hummert was never a partner in the company. Blackett left company management, despite remaining a partner, when he was commissioned into

441-550: Was the thirteenth largest advertising agency in the US, with billings of $ 876 million and clients including Procter & Gamble , General Mills , Toyota , Sara Lee and RJR Nabisco . The new DFS Dorland Worldwide network was to be operated independently from the Saatchi & Saatchi Compton Worldwide network and was at that time the sixteenth largest agency network in the world. Saatchi & Saatchi announced on June 22, 1987, that

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