With food mascots, it varies. From a tiger that wants kids to eat sugar coated cereal to a mitten with five fingers that gets parents to make ground meat into a meal. Yes....food mascots are always going to be around. But with this lump of dough, how did it get it's start, and why?
Working with the company at the time, an advertising agency thought up of an idea to make a mascot for their food. Leo Burnett was that man that created a person out of used dough and thought it would be fitting as the mascot for their Pillsbury products. Burnett was even responsible for creating Tony the tiger as well.
In 1965, the Pillsbury Doughboy got his first appearance, as well as a name. Poppin' fresh. He had other names, but he was always known for that name. As well as his giggle which always happened when someone poked him in the stomach. He would emerge out of a tube of crescents or biscuits and reveal himself to a family. He freaked the hell out of me.
As the years went by, the doughboy made many appearances in commercials for Pillsbury. He would cheer anyone up when they had a bad day with a batch of cookies. Give everyone an excuse to bake constantlly. He even was seen in cartoon shows like Simpsons and Family guy.
The doughboy even had a family at one point. Honest to god. He had a mother, grandparents. I guess he also had a brother and sister and they had their own names. They aren't seen much anymore because they weren't as popular as Poppin Fresh was. He was voiced by many actor. Now he is voiced by Jeff Bergan.
Like with cartoon shows, the Pillsbury Doughboy made appearances in commercials as well. Like Geico or Milk...they went crazy in that one. Where a family accuses of the doughboy drinking all the milk in the house. Let's just say they cooked him in the end.
The doughboy used to be a stop motion Claymation like Wallace and Gromit were. Now, with more technology, the doughboy is now considered a stop animation character like that Cheerios Bee being a 3-D animation instead of a drawing. People would even dress up at him on Halloween. He's that popular.
Today, the doughboy is still himself. Rarely being poked in the stomach as he used to. He's just there as a mascot for the Pillsbury company. He used to have a movie, or was a cameo of it in the 1980's. Starting out as a puppet, to clay and now 3-D...the Pillsbury doughboy has not changed one bit. He's still the same laughable mascot that gives us hope when we bake. That's sweet, in my opinion...still creepy
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