The Pillsbury Doughboy Family Members You Forgot About
Whether you use the Pillsbury brand for breakfast, dinner, or dessert, one thing we can all agree on is its ability to deliver deliciousness. Though the brand is mostly known for its wide range of products, the company's mascot — the Pillsbury Doughboy — may actually be the what steals the show. Seen in a number of commercials and on all of their packaging, The Doughboy has become known for his signature chef's hat and infectious laugh, and has long been a favorite amongst kids and adults. And while the Pillsbury website notes that the Pillsbury brand has been around since 1869, it might surprise you to know that the Pillsbury Doughboy himself wasn't introduced until almost 100 years later, in 1965.
Almost as equally surprising as the above is the character's real name. Although he is widely known as just the Pillsbury Doughboy, according to Bustle, the mascot's real name is actually Poppin' Fresh. So, where did the name come from, you ask? Well, as Bustle explains, it's a reference to what Rudolph Perz, a copywriter for ad agency Leo Burnett, envisioned while making Crescent Rolls one night: a mascot popping right out of the tube. And thus, a cute and a-dough-ble star was born.
The Doughboy Family began in the 1970s
That's not where the story ends though. After Poppin' Fresh — a.k.a the Pillsbury Doughboy — continued to bring the company massive success, the brand produced a full Doughboy family. Appearing in the early 1970s, Poppie Fresh — who is the wife to Poppin' — debuted to represent to all of the brand's sweet products (HuffPost). The Fresh Family also included two children (a son, Popper, and a daughter, Bun-Bun), Poppin's grandparents Granmommer and Granpopper, his Uncle Rollie, and two family pets — a dog named Flapjack and a cat named Biscuit.
So, what sparked the expansion of The Fresh Family? According to Mental Floss, it was the creation of the Poppin' Fresh doll that did the trick. The site revealed that after the Poppin' doll was released in the early '70s, the family was created as dolls, too. Pillsbury notes the doll was a 7-inch vinyl doll and became "one of the fastest selling toys in the U.S." at that time. As a result, the Poppin' Fresh Family became the first family of baked goods.