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How Energizer Gave Its Bunny a Power Suit in 2016
Energizer's 'Fluffy Tail, Power Suit' campaign is a pair of 15-second CGI films released in the United States in October 2016, created by Camp + King and produced with Mill+, introducing a redesigned Energizer Bunny as part of the brand's 'Bigger, Better, Bunnier' platform.
The campaign arrived at a pivotal moment for Energizer. Camp + King had been appointed Energizer's agency of record in January 2016, as reported by Adweek, following a creative review that had begun in October 2015. The appointment ended TBWA\Chiat\Day's tenure on the account, which per Adweek had spanned approximately 25 years — a remarkable run by any measure in the United States advertising market. With a new agency relationship firmly established, the brand moved quickly to announce its creative direction with a campaign that would reintroduce one of advertising's most recognisable mascots to contemporary audiences.
The two films, titled 'Power Suit' and 'Fluffy Tail', each ran at 15 seconds. Together they carried the singular task of reacquainting American consumers with the Energizer Bunny in a form that felt both familiar and visibly updated. The campaign falls within the Electronics and Technology category, and the brand's objectives centred on reinforcing Energizer's performance credentials while demonstrating creative vitality under its new agency partner. The United States remained the primary geographic market for the launch, and the work was submitted to industry archives within that same October 2016 release window, as documented in Clapboard's editorial records.
Energizer chose to invest in its existing mascot rather than abandon it. That decision reflects a strategic reading of the United States battery category, where brand recognition functions as a primary purchase driver in a low-involvement product segment where consumers make fast, habitual decisions at retail.
The competitive landscape shaped that logic directly. Duracell — the brand whose own drumming bunny character originally inspired DDB Needham Worldwide to create the Energizer Bunny as a parody in 1988, according to Wikipedia — remained Energizer's principal rival in the United States alkaline battery market. With Duracell backed by significant retail distribution and brand investment, Energizer needed its mascot to work harder as a differentiating asset rather than a legacy liability. A third major competitor, Rayovac, competed aggressively in the value segment, adding further pressure on Energizer's performance-tier positioning.
Market data from the period underscores the strategic stakes. According to a filing archived at Filecache Investorroom, Energizer's sales mix as of June 2016 showed premium alkaline batteries accounting for half of the brand's business, with performance alkaline at sixteen percent, value alkaline at seventeen percent, and specialty batteries and lights at a further seventeen percent. That same source recorded premium alkaline segment growth of positive four-point-eight percent in the measured period ending June 2016, while performance alkaline declined by two-point-eight percent. Protecting and growing the premium tier — precisely where the Energizer Bunny carries the most symbolic weight — was therefore a commercially urgent objective, not merely a brand management exercise. The 'Bigger, Better, Bunnier' platform was designed to serve that commercial priority directly.
Director Robert Sethi led production on the two films, working alongside CGI studio Mill+ to execute the redesigned Energizer Bunny.
The redesign itself was deliberate in its restraint. As reported by Adweek on October 13, 2016, the new Bunny retained its drum, sunglasses, and flip-flops — the three visual anchors that have defined the character since its public emergence in 1989, according to Wikipedia — while adopting a slimmer silhouette and a more expressive face made possible by contemporary CGI rendering. Adweek's Patrick Coffee characterised the result as 'not such a departure' from the original, describing the work as 'more an update than a refresh.' That framing captures the creative brief with precision: the goal was modernisation without alienation, updating the Bunny's visual language for high-definition and digital contexts without erasing the equity accumulated across decades of United States advertising.
Roger Camp, Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Camp + King, articulated the creative philosophy directly in a statement published by Adweek on October 13, 2016: 'There are few advertising icons that are as famous as the Energizer Bunny and while we kept his shape familiar, I'm excited to present him in new detail, and having him show up in more mediums.' The Camp + King team behind the work included creative directors Rikesh Lal and Jesse Dillow, art director Cameron Twombly, and copywriter Lara Kesler. Partners Roger Camp and Jamie King — Chief Creative Officer and Chief Executive Officer respectively — oversaw the campaign from the agency's San Francisco office. Mill+'s CGI production capability was central to achieving the level of character expressiveness the revised mascot required, giving the Bunny a physicality that static or traditionally animated executions could not have delivered within a 15-second format.
No verified performance data for the 'Fluffy Tail, Power Suit' campaign is publicly available. Clapboard assigns the campaign a Score of 63 out of 100, reflecting solid craft and clear strategic intent alongside structural constraints inherent to the format.
Analysed on its structural merits, the campaign's primary effectiveness asset is its use of an established icon in a category where new creative assets carry significant awareness risk. By retaining the Bunny's core visual signatures while upgrading its CGI fidelity, the work maximises recognition speed — a commercially important quality in 15-second pre-roll and broadcast environments where audience attention is contested from the first frame. The dual-film structure of 'Power Suit' and 'Fluffy Tail' also provides the campaign with two distinct creative entry points, enabling media scheduling flexibility without producing redundant impressions.
The campaign's structural limitation lies in its brevity and singular focus on the mascot as the primary message carrier. At 15 seconds, neither film has sufficient duration to build a detailed product argument, which means the work functions most effectively when layered within a broader media plan rather than as a standalone campaign. Within the 'Bigger, Better, Bunnier' platform context, that limitation is partially offset by the platform's evident ambition to extend the Bunny across multiple mediums — a point Roger Camp raised explicitly in his Adweek statement. The campaign's real-world effectiveness would therefore depend substantially on how extensively Energizer and Camp + King deployed the redesigned Bunny beyond these two launch films in the United States market.
The 'Fluffy Tail, Power Suit' campaign is two 15-second CGI films created by Camp + King for Energizer in October 2016. Released in the United States as part of the 'Bigger, Better, Bunnier' platform, the films introduced a redesigned Energizer Bunny with a slimmer, more expressive CGI form while retaining its drum, sunglasses, and flip-flops.
Robert Sethi directed the two films, produced alongside CGI studio Mill+. The Camp + King creative team included creative directors Rikesh Lal and Jesse Dillow, art director Cameron Twombly, and copywriter Lara Kesler, with Roger Camp and Jamie King overseeing the work as agency partners, as reported by Adweek.
Energizer redesigned the Bunny after appointing Camp + King as agency of record in January 2016, replacing TBWA\Chiat\Day after approximately 25 years, according to Adweek. The redesign modernised the character's CGI fidelity for digital and high-definition environments while preserving the visual equity the mascot had built since 1989 in the United States market.
TBWA\Chiat\Day held the Energizer account for approximately 25 years before Camp + King was appointed agency of record in January 2016, according to Adweek. Camp + King's appointment followed a creative review that began in October 2015, marking one of the more significant United States agency transitions in the Electronics category that year.
Clapboard assigns the 'Fluffy Tail, Power Suit' campaign a Score of 63 out of 100. The score reflects solid craft and clear strategic intent in reintroducing the Energizer Bunny to United States audiences, balanced against the structural constraints of a dual 15-second format with limited scope for detailed product messaging.
Both spots belonged to Energizer's 'Bigger, Better, Bunnier' campaign platform, launched in the United States in October 2016. The platform was designed to reintroduce the redesigned CGI Bunny across multiple mediums, a goal Roger Camp referenced in his October 13, 2016 statement to Adweek, emphasising the character's expanded media presence.
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