The Puttermans
The Puttermans are a fictional family that appeared in a series of advertisements for Duracell from 1994 to 1996. Background. The Puttermans were a family of plastic robots who outlasted others, thanks to their Duracell brand batteries (a playful reference to their deadpan 1970s ad campaign which featured head-to-head competition between toys). The campaign was made to combat the successful Energizer Bunny ad campaign. The fictional Brand X "other battery" depicted in the ad was made to look like rival Energizer batteries, much in the same way that Energizer's fictional rival "Supervolt" was made to  resemble Duracell batteries. The ad campaign was created by New York-based advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. The original campaign was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, whereas later executions (using the "No battery is stronger, longer" claim) were helmed by David Kellogg. The characters were developed by special effects guru Steve Johnson and his company XFX, Inc. The actors were made up to look as if they were claymation or computer animation characters. The costumes consisted of boxy modular units of stiff foam rubber coated with urethane. The characters all had large copper-top batteries protruding from their backs and their faces  were made of state-of-the-art latex prosthetics designed to heavily caricature the actors' own features, and complete character wardrobes. They tended to creep out viewers, due to their non-human yet non-toy nor cartoon appearance, and the series of commercials was abandoned. At the time, the actor identities were not revealed to preserve the family's mystique. Characters. The family consisted of: Other Characters Plots. Some of the commercial plots included the following: Halloween costumes of Herb and Flo, complete with latex masks, were released in North America. On the December 3, 1994 episode of the sketch  comedy show "Saturday Night Live", as part of Weekend Update, anchor Norm Macdonald joked, "The new ad campaign for Duracell batteries is already having a dramatic effect. Over seventy percent of consumers say they now find the batteries, quote, 'creepy and disturbing'."