June 14 was Neuter Your Bunny Day in New York, so decreed by local Renegade Marketing on behalf of Panasonic Oxyride Extreme Power batteries. The monthlong Neuter Your Bunny effort features the VW bus seen here, known as the Neuter Scooter, driving around the Big Carrot, if you will, in conjunction with street teams handing out T-shirts (see the PDF, which also has a shot of happy people who actually had their bunnies neutered). And there's a website, of course, at www.neuteryourbunny.com, where you can play with these weird creature icons called the OXYmites, which we can only hope have been neutered. As explained in a straight-faced press release, Neuter Your Bunny is "a public awareness effort promoting pet rabbit neutering," which "follows Easter's rabbit purchasing season and seeks to educate pet owners on the benefits of neutering." Moreover, Panasonic "is underwriting neuters and will donate $10,000 to the House Rabbit Society, an international nonprofit animal rescue and education organization." This part is for real.

As for the transparent attack on Eveready, for the moment, at least, it's going and going and going, albeit on rather a small scale. There's also a local TV spot and a longer video news release for out-of-town stations. "This seems to be enough to generate a nice little buzz so far," says Renegade CEO Drew Neisser. And how's this for a funny client? "Panasonic is pleased to help improve the lives of bunnies and their owners through Neuter Your Bunny," deadpans Brian Kimberlin, director of consumer marketing at Panasonic Battery Corp. of America. "When using Oxyride batteries in your digital camera, bunny owners can take twice as many pictures of their pets than they could with the other brands."