Buzby was a yellow (later orange) talking cartoon bird, launched in 1976 as part of a marketing campaign by

Post Office Telecommunications Post Office Telecommunications was set up as a separate department of the UK Post Office, in October 1969. The Post Office Act 1969 was passed to provide for greater efficiency in post and telephone services; rather than run a range of services, ...

, which later became

British Telecommunications BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broa ...

(BT).

The British Telecommunications mascot Buzby at a fun run in London in the 1970s

Overview

Buzby appeared in a series of television commercials with the catchphrase: "Make someone happy with a phone call". Buzby's voice was provided by

Bernard Cribbins Bernard Joseph Cribbins (29 December 1928 – 27 July 2022) was an English actor and singer whose career spanned over seven decades. During the 1960s, Cribbins became known in the UK for his successful novelty records " The Hole in the Groun ...

, and the character was animated by Charlie Jenkins of Trickfilm Studios, London. The campaign spawned many marketing items, such as toys, badges, a comic strip in ''

TV Comic ''TV Comic'' was a British comic book magazine published weekly from 9 November 1951 until 29 June 1984. Featuring stories based on television series running at the time of publication, it was the first British comic to be based around TV pro ...

'', and books, and lasted until well into the 1980s. British Telecom produced and sold a "Buzby" wrist watch with Buzby perched on the second hand; the watch had a blue strap.

References

BT Group Advertising characters Male characters in advertising Fictional birds Mascots introduced in 1976 {{marketing-stub