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Q: What's up Doc?
A: A Bugs Bunny stamp
May 23, 1997Web posted at: 1:51 p.m. EDT (1751 GMT)
(CNN) -- Some people think it's a hare-brained idea. But there's no stopping Bugs Bunny now. The carrot-chomping, wise-cracking rabbit is the latest cartoon character to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. The 32-cent stamp went on sale nationwide on Friday.
It shows a toothy Bugs Bunny leaning on a mailbox and clutching a carrot with "USA" floating nearby in cloud-style letters over the number 32.
The Postal Service hopes it has a hit on its hands, especially with young fans of Bugs Bunny, a cartoon character born in 1940 who is still a money-maker for Warner Brothers, a unit of Time-Warner, parent company of CNN.
No money changed hands for the promotion, but some stamp collectors are decrying the use of the wascally wabbit as blatant commercialism.
"Commercial products are not supposed to be on U.S. stamps,"
argues Gary Griffith, a columnist for Stamp Collectors
Magazine. 
(187K/15 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
Kathleen Wunderly, education director for the American Philatelic Society -- a stamp collector group -- agrees.
"It's impossible for me to see that this is anything but a crass commercial campaign that takes away from the higher purpose of the stamp program," she said.
The Postal Service, however, makes no apologies. "The nature of America today is commercial, said spokesman Barry Zeihl, adding that the Bugs Bunny stamp was within guidelines.
And Postmaster General Marvin Runyon is a booster of the image Bugs Bunny presents to children. "When he has problems with violence ... he solves it with creativity and wit. He doesn't solve it with more violence."
The idea for a Bugs Bunny stamp came from Warner Brothers, but postal officials were already considering such a stamp out of concern that stamp collecting was growing less popular among children, Zeihl said.
Warner Brothers gave free use of its cartoon family, led by Bugs Bunny. Postal officials also had discussed stamps bearing Disney characters with the Walt Disney Co. But Disney wanted royalties, which the Postal Service was not willing to pay, Zeihl said.
About 265 million Bugs Bunny stamps went on sale Friday. At 32 cents apiece, that will buy a lot of carrots. Happy eating -- and licking -- Bugs.
Correspondent Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.
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