Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Today’s Zippy, with two creepy steel-jawed squint-eyed beefy characters listing the threats presented to society by a notorious public figure woefully lacking in red-blooded American masculinity:

For three panels, you get to speculate: Tinky Winky? Truman Capote on a bender? Pee Wee Herman cruising the movies? Or who?

Then it comes: Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Here he is:

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 (Hoo-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. (link)

Fathers, don’t let your sons play with this obvious pervert! (And deformed, too: in contrast to your typical three-fingered cartoon creature, PF  has barely bifurcated flippers. This beyond the customary sexless body.)

This entry was posted on November 29, 2012 at 9:05 am and is filed under Gender and sexuality, Language in advertising, Linguistics in the comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.