Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising mascot for the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 (together with some for GEICO between 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"). History The Pillsbury Doughboy was created by Rudolph 'Rudy' Perz, a copywriter for Pillsbury's longtime advertising agency Leo Burnett. Perz was sitting in his kitchen in the spring of 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign for the 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 the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in 2017. Character Originally named "Jonathan Pillsbury", the dough boy was given a scarf, a chef's hat, and two big blue eyes to distinguish him from the rolls, as well as a blush and a soft, warm chuckle when poked on the belly. The Doughboy was originally designed by Milt Schaffer and brought to life using stop motion clay animation. Today, CGI is used. The first CGI commercial was broadcast in 1992 and was directed by Tim Johnson who at that time was working for PDI, which would be later owned by DreamWorks Animation in 1995. Animation 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 puppet was then created at a cost of $16,000. Voice actor Paul Frees was chosen to be Fresh's voice. Stop-motion animator George Pal was hired to animate him. The first Poppin' Fresh commercials aired in November 1965. 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's "Icons" commercial in 2005 during Super Bowl XXXIX, with the Jolly Green Giant, the Morton Salt Girl, the Vlasic stork, Charlie the Tuna, Mr. Peanut, Count Chocula, the Gorton's Fisherman, Chef Boyardee, and Mr. Clean as some of the ten merchandising icons, depicted as having dinner together. He even appears in ads for