387. Brand Stories: EVEREADY® BATTERIES, 1929-1983 Philippine Ads

EVEREADY Print Ad, with Model Dawn Colvin.1970,

The EVEREADY Battery Company was founded back in the 1890s by Conrad Hubert , the inventor of the first electric hand torch—or the flashlight. With a rough brass reflector inside a paper tube, the contraption was powered by dry cell batteries. 

EVEREADY, FLASHLIGHTS & BATTERIES, 1929

The flashlight proved to be a successful product, but the batteries were also much in demand, and by the 1920s the production of the EVEREADY® battery brand begins to expand across the globe over the next three decades. By 1929, EVEREADY flashlights and batteries were available in the Philippines, imported all the way from the U.S., advertised in leading magazines and dailies.

EVEREADY FLASHLIGHTS & BATTERIES, 1929

The now familiar “Cat & 9” EVEREADY® icon was launched in the 1930s, and the brand character became one of the most identifiable marks of EVEREADY. By the 1950s, the “battery with 9 lives” was an established brand, distributed by Pacific Merchandising Corp., along with EVEREADY-branded flashlights, radio batteries and dry cells.  

EVEREADY, SILENT NIGHT, 1955

The National Carbon Philippines, Inc. in Mandaluyong  began producing EVEREADY batteries to serve the growing needs of the Philippine market. The fledgling company would grow to become the Union Carbide Philippines in the late 1960s, part of the Union Carbide Corporation, the world’s largest producer of ethylene glycol and the a leading manufacturer of the world’s most widely used plastic, polyethylene. 

THANKS TO EVEREADY, 1957

EVEREADY, BUY FRESH, 1958

The marketing of EVEREADY took a more sophisticated turn, with communication and media strategies planned by its appointed ad agency, McCann-Erickson Phils.  In 1968, “The Fresh Ones” campaign was launched, harping on the freshness of EVEREADY Batteries as as for the first time, they were manufactured locally in the Mandaue plant in Cebu.

EVEREADY, THE FRESH ONES, "Fruits", 1968

EVEREADY, THE FRESH ONES, "Vegetables", 1968

One of the most memorable EVEREADY campaigns that was launched on Philippine TV ca. 1983, carried the theme “EVEREADY—may lakas sa loob na tumatagal”, that shows how the batteries came to save the day  for a husband and wife about to have their baby. The delivery was hampered by a brownout, but an EVEREADY-powered flashlight ensured a smooth delivery. The ad was the brainchild of the legendary McCann-Erickson creative director Bill Y. Ibañez. 

WATCH THE EVEREADY "LAKAS SA LOOB" TVC HERE:

uploaded by ADman 1909, July 5, 2007

In 1986, Union Carbide sold its Battery Products Division to Ralston Purina Company for $1.4 billion.  In 2000, Ralston spun off Eveready, and it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a holding company, Energizer Holdings, Inc. with EVEREADY Battery Company, Inc continuing as its most important daughter company.

The Union Carbide plant in Cebu was renamed as  Energizer Philippines, and continued to produce batteries until its closure in May 2011. The company is still represented in the country as Energizer Philippines and continues to make EVEREADY and Energizer batteries available. 

 SOURCES:

Eveready website: https://www.eveready.com/

Goodbye-Union Carbide, The Philippine Star, 27 April 2011. https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2011/04/27/679662/editorial-goodbye-union-carbide

Union Carbide Corp., https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/union-carbide-corp

Video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1192253240694