Pillsbury Doughboy

Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising icon and mascot of The Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2004 (returned in 2009, 2010, and 2011) conclude with a human finger poking the Doughboy's stomach. The Doughboy responds by rubbing his stomach and giggling (Woo-Hoo!, or earlier on, a slight giggle).

The Pillsbury Doughboy was created by the Leo Burnett advertising agency's copy writer Rudy Perz as he was sitting in his kitchen in 1962, under pressure to create an advertising campaign. Tanttila imagined a living dough boy popping out of a Pillsbury Crescent Rolls can. To distinguish the dough boy from the rolls, he gave it a scarf, a chef's hat, two big blue eyes, a blush, and a soft, warm chuckle when poked in the stomach. The Doughboy was originally drawn by Martin Nodell and brought to life using stop motion clay animation. Today, CGI is used. The first CGI commercial was directed by Tim Johnson who at that time was working for PDI.

Perz originally conceived the Doughboy as an animated figure, but changed his mind after seeing a stop motion titling technique used in the opening credits for The Dinah Shore Show. A three-dimensional Doughboy doll of clay was then created at a cost of $16. Paul Frees was chosen to be Fresh's voice. Since then, Pillsbury has used Poppin' Fresh in more than 600 commercials for more than fifty of its products. He also appeared in a MasterCard commercial, with the Jolly Green Giant, the Morton Salt Girl, and Count Chocula, as some of the ten merchandising icons, depicted as having dinner together.

After Paul Frees' death in 1986, Jeff Bergman took over. Today, the high-pitched giggles are done by JoBe Cerny.

Pillsbury family

In the 1970s, a Pillsbury Doughboy family was created and sold as dolls.^[1]

Included in the family are:

• Poppie Fresh (a.k.a. Mrs. Poppin' Fresh, Pillsbury Doughgirl) (wife)^[2]
• GrandPopper and GranMommer (grandparents)^[3]

Pillsbury, Inc vs My Dough Girl, Llc

In May 2010, Pillsbury's lawyers served a cease and desist notice to My Dough Girl, Llc. a Salt Lake City, Utah Cookie Retailer with one store.^[4] Some reported that an attorney for General Mills instructed her to not talk to the press.^[5]

Doughboy in Popular Culture

Due to its widespread television projection Poppin' Fresh has ingrained itself into popular culture in several ways.

• In "Funnybot", the second episode of the fifteenth season of South Park, the Funnybot machine has joked about Pillsbury Dough Boy, saying; “What do you see when the Pillsbury Dough Boy bends over? Dough nuts.”
• In The Big Bang Theory episode "The Hot Troll Deviation" Howard's mother exclaims that she is spilling out of her girdle "like the Pillsbury Doughboy."
• In The Simpsons episode "Team Homer" an anaesthetised Mr. Burns confuses Homer for Poppin' Fresh. Also in the episode "The Otto Show" Otto calls Homer "Poppin Fresh" and pokes him in the stomach.
• In The Golden Girls episode "Hey Look Me Over" Blanche and Sophia call Rose the Pillsbury Doughboy
• In Glee episode "Silly Love Songs" Santana calls Lauren Zizes 'Poppin' Fresh and they start a fight in the hallway. Also in the episode "Mash Off" Santana insults Finn calling him of Pillsbury Dough before the dodgeball game.
• In Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Johnny C. is haunted by a pair of Styrofoam Doughboys named Mr. Eff and Psycho-Doughboy.

See also

• Morton Salt

References

External links

• Character's official site
• Audio file (MP3 format) of the Doughboy giggling
• Pillsbury Family