When people think batteries and bunnies, they think Energizer. But the Energizer Bunny, for all his panache, is really a Johnny-come lately to the battery advertising world.
The History Of Duracell Batteries
The original battery bunny belonged to Duracell Batteries. Duracell Batteries are the world's largest battery maker, and have been in business since the scientist Samuel Ruben and the industrialist Philip Rogers Mallory joined forces in the 1920s to create a class if batteries capable of withstanding climactic differences around the globe.
Their batteries were put through the crucible of the World War II battlefields from the
European to the Pacific theaters, and performed so reliably in everything from mine detecting equipment to field radios.
When, in the 1950s, Kodak introduced its flash camera, the Mallory Company obliged by creating the AAA battery. In the 1960s, the AA penlight battery appeared, and in 1964, the company coined the name "Duracell," short for durable cells. By 1975, when Philip Rogers Mallory passed away, the P. R. Mallory Company had become Duracell International.
Up until the late 1970s, all of the Duracell batteries had been mercury based, but as the devastating environmental effects of the mercury from disposable batteries became known, Duracell discontinued their mercury battery line. Duracell batteries are now alkaline, zinc-air, or lithium based.
Duracell Innovations
Duracell have always been known fro their innovative battery lines; while they manufacture all the standard battery sizes from AAA to 9V, they also make AAAA batteries for handheld devices like pagers, and J batteries for hospital use. Duracell supplies button shaped batteries for hearing aids and calculators. Many Duracell batteries, especially those for cameras, hearing aids, and watches, are rechargeable.
The longer life "Coppertop" line of Duracell batteries are more familiar to the battery buying public than the "Ultra" line, which, although it too has the copper top, is designed to work better in power hungry devices. Both of these Duracell battery lines incorporate alkaline chemistry. But in 2006, Power Pix Duracell batteries came to market, to feed the demand for batteries which could handle the drain of digital cameras. With metal hydroxyl chemistry, the Power Pix Duracell batteries can last nearly twice as long as their alkaline based counterparts.
The Bunnies
Today Duracell International, which merged with Gillette in 1996, is a member of the Proctor & Gamble family of companies: P&G bought Gillette in 2005. And the Duracell bunnies?
The Duracell bunnies always appear in groups, and are a much rounder and cuddlier breed of bunny than the Energizer upstart. They began by beating drums, but have expanded their repertoire of activities to such exploits as rock climbing. The Duracell bunny with the copper colored vest is, naturally, the one who outlasts the others.
The Energizer bunny began his career as a solo act by intruding on a group of drumbeating Duracell bunnies, beating his own much larger drum and sporadically swinging a huge mallet while all the other bunnies gradually lost power. Duracell Batteries have since yielded the North American advertising market to the Energizer bunny, but the Duracell bunnies and their antics are still much beloved in Europe.
Even better, when Duracell batteries were proven in some applications to outlast Energizer batteries, Energizer was forced to re-word its motto "Nothing outlasts an Energizer."
Revenge of the Duracell Bunnies?
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