Pillsbury Doughboy

Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as thePillsbury Doughboy, is an advertisingmascotfor thePillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 (together with some forGEICObetween 2009 and 2017) ended with a human finger poking the Doughboy's belly. The Doughboy responds by giggling when his belly is poked (Hoo-Hoo!, or earlier on, a slight giggle "tee hee").
The Pillsbury Doughboy was created by Rudolph 'Rudy' Perz, a copywriter for Pillsbury's longtime advertising agencyLeo Burnett.Perz was sitting in his kitchen in the spring of 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign for Pillsbury's refrigerated dough product line (biscuits, dinner rolls, sweet rolls, and cookies). His copywriter,Carol H. Williams,imagined a living doughboy popping out of a Pillsbury refrigerated dough can and wrote the campaign, "Say Hello to Poppin' Fresh Dough". Williams was inducted into theAmerican Advertising Federation Hall of Famein 2017.
Poppin' Fresh was given a scarf, a chef's hat, and two big blue eyes to distinguish him from the rolls, as well as a faint blush and a soft, warm chuckle when poked on the belly. The Doughboy was originally designed by Milt Schaffer.
Stop-motion animator Jim Danforth was hired to animate him. The first Poppin' Fresh commercials aired in November 1965. Since then,Pillsburyhas used Poppin' Fresh in more than 600 commercials for more than fifty of its products. He also appeared in aMasterCard's "Icons" commercial in 2005 duringSuper Bowl XXXIX, with theJolly Green Giant, theMorton SaltGirl, theVlasicstork,Charlie the Tuna,Mr. Peanut,Count Chocula, theGorton'sFisherman,Chef Boyardee, andMr. Cleanas some of the ten merchandising icons, depicted as having dinner together. He even appears in ads for theGot Milk?company and theSprint Phone Company, and theGEICOinsurance company. He also made a cameo appearance in the 1987 animation filmThe Puppetoon Movie.On February 9, 2025 duringSuper Bowl LIX, he appeared in a ad forInstacartalongside the aforementioned Jolly Green Giant and Mr. Clean,Kool-Aid Man,Isaiah Mustafa(The "Old SpiceGuy"),Chester Cheetah(Cheetos), theEnergizer Bunny,Mountain Dew’s PuppyMonkeyBaby, and theHeinzWiener Dogs.
Over 50 different actors auditioned for the role of the Pillsbury Doughboy, among them wasPaul Winchell, who is best known for voicingTiggerin theWinnie the Poohfranchise, but lost out.
Paul Freeswas the first actor chosen to be Fresh's voice and would continue to provide his voice for 21 years.After Frees' death in 1986,Jeff Bergmantook over the role, until 2014.The high-pitched giggles were done byJoBe Cernyafter 2014.In recent years, he has also been voiced byPeter New, Fred Young, and Jeremy Geller.In two advertisements for the UK in 1976, British voice actorPeter Hawkinsvoiced the character.
Perz originally conceived the Doughboy as a cartoon animated figure but changed his mind after seeing a stop-motion technique used in the opening credits forTheDinah ShoreShow. Cascade Pictures was hired to create a three-dimensional Doughboy puppet at a cost of $16,000.
The Doughboy was brought to life withstop-motionanimation, using foam rubber puppets with ball and socket armatures inside for the body.The heads were typically made of resin, each with different mouth shapes or expression and animated using a replacement animation technique whereby the head would be swapped out frame-by-frame to match the mouth movements to the dialog.Beginning in 1992, the animation technique was changed to CGI animation, and continues to be used in new ads.
In the 1970s, a Pillsbury Doughboy family was created and sold as dolls individually and in the form of various playsets.
Included in the family are:
In May 2010, Pillsbury's lawyers served a cease and desist notice to My Dough Girl, LLC., a Salt Lake City, Utah cookie retailer.Some reported that an attorney forGeneral Millsinstructed her not to talk to the press.