The creator of that frustrated mascot, Harris died March 26 at age 89.

Harris was an art director in 1959 when he was asked to “see what you can come up with over the weekend” for a character to tout Trix cereal. His agency, Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, was a Mad Men-era force among Madison Avenue ad agencies. Dancer Fitz had worked with General Mills for decades.

People had their place in those stratified agency days. Writers wrote. Artists drew. Production people produced.

“There was little crossover,” Harris said in an early 2000s interview, with Todd Dolce. “Back then, artists weren’t supposed to write, writers weren’t supposed to draw and producers were called in only at the end of the creative process.”

In that quilt, it was the writers who were held in esteem. That plum role and the cache it carried could be envied. Maybe even coveted as much as a cartoon rabbit yearned for a mouthful of Trix. 

The rabbit went on to sell untold dollars’ worth of cereal.

It would have been nice to have a big cut of that, Harris later said. Such is the fate of most artists. He wasn’t thinking about money when he created that rabbit.

“I was thinking about getting it done and making it look good.”