Duracell talkative relative slipped other battery commercial 1994
I mean, you can't spell "funeral" without "fun" after all...
From 1994 through 1996, Duracell started an ad campaign featuring a robotic family named "The Puttermans" who last longer than others due to their eponymous batteries. It was originally made to compete with the Energizer Bunny campaign.
Synposis[]
In this advert, the Puttermans are having a family reunion, with Flo the wife/mother of the family asking if everyone's wearing Duracell batteries. One member jokes and says that the second that he heard that there was a battery that outlasts other brands, he brought the family a whole case. One relative starts rambling a story on living in Tulsa when she heard about Duracell, which starts to annoy everyone. Eventually she stops mid-sentence and falls with her face in a plate full of noodles (presumably alfredo).
Flo asks the father Herb if he slipped her one of those "other" batteries, with him replying with "Me?", and then the family starts laughing. After the ad, the announcer chuckles with them and says the tagline "The Coppertop Tops 'Em All."
Why It's Cursed[]
The ad is traumatizing in both ways. One explanatory way is the design of the people, who look like uncanny action figures who creepily came to life. And secondly, Herb practically kills the grandma and the family all laughs at it.
Trivia[]
- The grandma was actually played by a male actor, K.W. Miller.
- The Puttermans were created by Steve Johnson at his special effects company XFX. The characters were made up of stiff foam rubber made with urethane. A private behind the scenes video can be viewed here.
- According to this 1996 news article, ABC sparked interest in having the family appear in one of their sitcoms, and Steven Spielburg even thought about doing a featured film based on them. Nevertheless, those two plans never happened, particularly because Duracell didn't want to lose control of the characters. The only time the Puttermans were ever referenced elsewhere in media was on a "Weekend Update" on the December 3rd, 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live.
- Halloween costumes of Flo and Herb were released.
- The unnamed "other battery" was clearly made to resemble Energizer batteries, much like Energizer's ads designed their fictional "Supervolt" rival to look like Duracell batteries.
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