How a duck with no foot still waddled into people’s hearts

In an old episode of television’s “Friends,” Matthew Perry’s character, Chandler, jokingly points out that while Donald Duck never wore pants, whenever he got out of the shower, cartoonists always wrapped a towel around his waist.

As humorous an observation as a duck without trousers might be, the idea of a duck without a foot is no laughing matter, especially when we’re no longer talking about a fictional character.

That was the case for Buttercup, who would quickly become somewhat of an unexpected spokesduck once NovaCopy, a copier and document solutions company based in Nashville, Tenn., learned of his story.

According to The Huffington Post, Buttercup was born in a high-school biology lab with only a partially developed foot.

The duck’s eventual owner, Mike Garey, told CNET that Buttercup “would have been in pain and had constant cuts and foot infections walking on the side of it,” even while living at the Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary, where the duck would live in Arlington, Tenn.

That’s where NovaCopy came into play.

After Buttercup had his foot amputated, Garey looked into various limb replacement options. When shopping around for a service, he came across NovaCopy.

The company eagerly agreed to donate its 3D printer technology to print a 3D prototype foot that would enable Buttercup to walk.

Simply by using staff time, as well as existing software and equipment, NovaCopy didn’t require a budget for its services. 

Instead, its marketing staff quickly saw the potential of helping Buttercup as an opportunity to showcase the company’s abilities, pitching the story to the likes of The Tennessean, where news of the downtrodden duck given a second chance to waddle soon went viral.

As word spread, NovaCopy’s team put together a video on how it created the prosthetic prototype, and has since been able to use it at various trade shows.

From there, the number of news organizations that picked up Buttercup’s story continued to grow—including a number of design publications clearly of value to NovaCopy as a company. In fact, the duck’s story has run in more than 46 countries to date.

In the end, Buttercup wasn’t the only one to walk away from all of this on top (just the only one to be walking away from anything for the first time).

Beyond increasing awareness of NovaCopy’s brand and technology capabilities, it’s our pleasure to recognize the company’s noble efforts as the winner in PR Daily’s 2013 Video Awards for Best Marketing Video.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx