Everybody loves a rubber duck. From Ernie in Sesame Street to Little Richard in, er, Sesame Street, all the greats have had their moment with a squeaky yellow bathroom accessory. Here’s the aforementioned wild man of rock’n’roll doing his take of Ernie’s signature song, which may be the only time anyone has ever played piano while sitting in a bathtub:
However, things have been a little quiet on the rubber duck front recently, with nary a squeak to be heard. However, that all changed on December 12th, 2012 with the maiden voyage (possibly only voyage) of a giant rubber duck down the River Thames. You can see how the duck got on with his trip in this Twitter photo slide show.
The publicity stunt was orchestrated by gaming bingo, slots, and casino gaming website Jackpotjoy to help promote their new ‘Just for the Jackpotjoy of it’ campaign. You can see the main TV advert, which features a quite unbelievable performance of a famous Bach piece on an assortment of squeaky toys, here:
Personally, I think the cello player does a fine job, but the judge – none other than Eastenders and Carry On actress Babs Windsor – obviously disagrees. Perhaps if he’d worn a ruffled shirt as well, this flash of flamboyance might have edged the contest in his direction, but now we will never know.
In the advert, Windsor reprises her role as Babs, Queen of Bingo, which she has played in several previous ad campaigns and in Bingo Royale, her own Jackpotjoy bingo game. You can see her talking about her new starring role in this short ‘making of’ clip, which also gives you a brief glimpse into how the squeaky toy contraption was put together:
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