Poppin’ Off on Pillsbury

This hydra-esque brand has been variously involved in the baking business for 150 years. Anney and Lauren explore the turns and twists of Pillsbury.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about Pillsbury and it is
I know we say it often, but this one is
legitimately it is. It is like the hydra you chop
off one head and two more grow like everything. I

(00:30):
was like, Okay, we'll go down this path. Oh no,
we can't go down. Okay, let's go back. Oh we'll
go to this path. Oh no, okay, now what ever? Mind? Yeah, yeah,
there's I mean, the company has been around for so
long and it's got so many like sub brands, um,
and I mean fun Fetty could be its own mini series.
I think it should be. And yeah, um looking forward

(00:51):
to that someday. This is not the fun Fetty episode. UM.
But but yeah, many, many, many corporate shenanigans have occurred, um,
and we are so excited to tell you all about
them because we we both have some like we have
both participated, um in the growth of this corporation at

(01:12):
least I mean I suppose our our parents did. Anyway.
I mean we both have nostalgic memories of this stuff. Yeah,
we do. I do have many fond memories of Pillsbury products.
I particularly loved the crescent roles when I was a kid, like,
oh that smell, and I would like I would break
them apart in particular. Yes, yes, And I have a

(01:36):
very vivid memory of being in college and a slightly
tipsy trying to open one of those crescent roll canisters,
like hitting it with a knife. Everything worked out fun, well,
that's good, but I it terrified me every time opening those,
like even knife or not tipsy or not, still makes

(01:59):
me a little nervous. Oh, you know, to this day,
to this day, it's um as not bothered as I
am by opening bottles of sparkling wine because you can
like point those away from yourself. There's no way to
point uh dough canister away from yourself because it's gonna
go every It's just it's everywhere. It's just expanding in
all directions simultaneously, and it makes such a loud noise.

(02:22):
But it's got such delicious baked goods inside, Oh it does.
I have so many recipes that are you know, like
the simple you put chocolate and bree inside and the
christient rules with that or at a pretty good like
pumpkin one that I used to do. Um, there's so
many opportunities, the whole world of opportunities with those cristent roles.

(02:43):
I also my brothers loved the cinnamon rolls. Um. I
liked them before the icing went on. The icing was
too much for me, but if I could get them
before that. And then my grandparents loved the I think
they were called grand slams. They were like those biscuits
that had all the layers. Oh shore right, we're right.
Yeah yeah. My dad, for like special occasions, um, for

(03:09):
like maybe like a Christmas morning or something, would sometimes
get a role of the cinnamon rolls. Um. And And
I I was always such a snob about baked goods
because my my mom's mother would like make these homemade
uh cinnamon rolls that I'm still completely in love with.

(03:31):
Um and and so like that nostalgia factor, like homemade
east roles are it's hard to beat. It's hard to beat. Um.
So I was always like, this is really real, Um,
like Lauren, Okay, well it is real. Nothing's really real

(03:54):
here anyway. UM yeah definitely yeah, um, but no, but
I do have I do have fond nostalgic memories of
that kind of thing. Um, And it was always for
special occasions because I think like, like like my dad,
you know, worked in the restaurant industry pretty much all
his life, and so like for a special occasion if

(04:17):
he didn't have to cook, especially in the morning like
many like many chefs and cooks, he hated making breakfast
and so and so that was always like a special
occasion for him and for both of us. Yeah, Oh absolutely,
it's a pretty like we didn't use those kind of

(04:38):
things that often either. Um. One thing we did keep
around a lot, I believe I've mentioned before was the
like tubes of cookie Downey tubes of the chocolate chip
cookie don't and I would just like, I mean, it
was a part of me that shutters to think about
it now, but it was so good at the time.
I would just cut off a slice. Justice, Yeah, just

(04:59):
eat it. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I think that it's probable
that that it's probably that Pillsbury was also the brand
of because we would make Christmas cookies when we decorated
the tree every year. He grew up Jewish, so he
was very he was very tickled by the entire Christmas
decoration process. Um. And we would always make sugar cookies

(05:21):
and like listen to um tonat King Cole, but again
never from scratch, because why would you do that to
yourself if you're an off duty anyway? Yes, yeah, yeah,
I mean the holiday cookies that was the whole thing
like that. They were the sugar cookies that had the
hearts in them for Valentine's Very good. Um. But yes,

(05:43):
I guess we should mention Pillsbury is not currently a
sponsor as we record this. We're just interested in these
stories about companies and how they came to be. Yeah, yeah,
especially when it is as influential as this one. So um,
I suppose this brings us to our question. I suppose
as it does. Pillsbury what is it? Well, Pillsbury is

(06:09):
a brand of food and home baking products UM that's
actually owned by two different companies at this point. Um this.
I had no idea about this, and it tickles me.
It was made for some very confusing reading right right
up until I figured out what was going on at
any rate. Um yeah. So so the brand um encompasses
two basic divisions UM shelf stable goods found in the

(06:31):
baking aisle of your grocery store like a flowers, cake
and brownie mixes, canned frosting, etcetera. UM, and then also refrigerated,
frozen and prepared snack goods that are found in their
respective aisles like UM, cookie and biscuit and pizza does
frozen toaster pastries, snack cookies, etcetera. Both the refrigerated and

(06:56):
the shelf stable goods are generally meant to like help
home cooks prepare fresh baked goods in their homes more easily,
with less sub consideration and preparation required. Um. It's a right,
just a really long running brand that depends on this
like recognition and nostalgia factor and convenience m those two companies. Uh,

(07:21):
it's it's sort of like a like a Sody Fox
Marvel thing as far as I can tell. Uh. So okay,
So so GM owns the brands refrigerated, frozen and prepared
foods division. Um. This this company called Hometown Food Company
owns its baking aisle division. Uh. The GM version of

(07:45):
the logo is this navy circle with a single set
of white dots around the edge. UM, and the Pillsbury
name offset at a tilt. And they own the doughboy
and run the bake off. The Hometown Food Company version
of the low has two sets of dots and no tilt,
and they licensed the doughboy but own fun Fetty. What.

(08:08):
But now I'm confused because how am I supposed to
keep this straight? All right, I could deal it's fox
farmer Sody, I could tell you all about it. But
this one of them is a tilt. I thought that
was a fun one, but another one has fe fetty,
so that one seems like it would be the fun one.
They both the fun one. It has there. I think

(08:30):
that they would argue that they are both the fun one.
But but you can put the the fun fetti one
has the two sets of dots, so like fun Fetty
it is. It is extra studded, extra. It sounds like
me when I was going to concerts in high school.

(08:50):
I guess that was fun. This is actually kind of
I love this kind of thing. This is what if
you get me a couple of peers in I love
talking about very specific legal ownership things, and most people
give me polite nods, so they wander away, and then

(09:12):
I left by myself. Oh yeah, no, it's it's kind
of It's kind of wonderful. In a in a pedantic
sort of way. I mentioned this on Twitter the other day,
but it's kind of related and it's still really tickling me,
so I'm gonna mention it here as well. Brief aside
that has nothing to do whatsoever with Pillsbury. Um. I
was talking with my friend Katya about all of our
crushes and the television shows Supernatural, which if you're if

(09:34):
you've been listening, then you know that Annie and I
are fans of um and uh and it's the kind
of show that like really encourage you, encourages you to
have a crush on literally everybody, and and we do
and so uh, Cattie and I were talking about it
and I was like, Lord helped me. I'm pretty sure
that my biggest crush is on Crowley. And Katia was like, huh,
it's all the paperwork, isn't it. And I felt very seen.

(10:06):
Yeah at any rate, Um, okay, So I had mentioned
um in all of this, the dough Boy, and if

(10:26):
you have no idea what that is, you're very confused
right now. But but but it's a it's a long
running mascot of Pillsbury. UM you've I mean, but you've
probably seen him. You've probably seen the commercials or the
advert that the marketing. Um, he's a kind of little
little Doughey, white buddy, little round blue eyes, and he's
wearing a chef's hat and a neckerchief. Um, it's got

(10:49):
a squeaky little voice. He giggles when you poke them
in the stomach. In the stomach. Yeah yeah. I always
found that weird, like, why are you poking this guy?
I personally dislike being poked, So that's probably why Facebook
you true enough, true enough. Another thing I mentioned above

(11:15):
is the Pillsbury bake Off, which is a more or
less annual baking contest that that invites fans to submit
recipes for a cash prize and bragging rights. Winner was
a skillet sugar cookie pancake. Mm hmm yeah yeah, sugar
cookie like on the on the outside, around the edges,

(11:36):
pancake like in the center. I don't know, h yeah, okay.
I have so many questions about this because I was
the other I was thinking about this, What would I
submit if I entered this, and so many things I
would submit are things like recipes I found from other people. Sure,
so I'm not I don't know, to get creative yeah. Yeah.

(12:01):
Runners up this year or last year at any rate.
UH included a cornbread swirled molly pie UM and Macha
Tea iced biscuits. That sounds lovely, right right Yeah. Pillsbury
publishes a number of cookbooks under an imprint at Houghton

(12:24):
Mifflin Hardcourt UM, including titles like UM, The Best of
the Bake Off, which which has different books for casseroles, desserts,
and cookies and bars. Yeah. They've also got the Big
Book of Easy Baking with Refrigerated Dough UM and the

(12:44):
Fast Slow Cooker Cookbook and sorry and he was just
making this space. My brain was like what hold on? UM?
And one one recent one called Baking Hacks UM, which
has this illustration of the Dope Boy on the cover

(13:07):
like he like he's leaning over your kitchen counter at you,
like his hands propping up his head and he's all like, look,
let's get real here. You need some help. I'm here
for you. The Dope Boy can. He can pull out
a variety of emotions. In my opinion, can. He's very expressive.

(13:33):
They also have a lot of recipes and tutorials online
UM from General Mills at Pillsbury dot com and from
Hometown Food at at Pillsbury Baking dot Com. And and
I can I, I can tell, I can tell you

(13:55):
want a list, right, yeah, yeah, okay, all right, uh
all right. Um. The General Mills products include things that
you're hypothetically supposed to bake yourself with minimal additions biscuits,
pie crust, crescent rolls, pizza crust, bread, cinnamon rolls, corn
bread swirls, cookie dough, and pull apart kits. Also things

(14:20):
the heat neat, toaster, stroutle, toaster, scrambles and microwave, brownies
and cinnamon rolls and already baked cookies and dessert bars. Um.
The hometowned food company products include things are hypothetically supposed
to bake yourself with a few additions of water and
eggs and et cetera. Cookies, cakes, brownies, donuts, quickbreads and muffins, breads,

(14:43):
pizza crust, corn muffins, biscuits, rolls, and pancakes, plus uh
basics and uh and toppings like like flowers, frosting, and sprinkles. Okay,
a lot of stuff. I'm still a little confused, but
you know, I think I got the gist the basics.

(15:06):
It's I you know, you know, you know, I'm not
sure that I do know, but we do have a
lot to illuminate in history sections do we do in
the meantime? What about the nutrition? Don't eat brands, I
guess unless you are a fellow like conglomerate and you

(15:27):
are acquiring them and eating them in that way, which
Pillsbury did a lot of. Yes, I bet there's some
weird like capitalism metaphor we could go into about eating brands,
but that's neither here nor there. We do have some
numbers for you, we do, okay, um. Once we're suggested

(15:49):
that in two thousand three, Pillsbury sales amounted to seven
point for billion dollars, which is a lot m m
m m um. And I think that that was the
General Mills segment UM. But I read that as of UM,
the baking segment of General Mills in General was making

(16:13):
about two billion in annual sales, which was eleven percent
of the company's total revenue UM. And that furthermore, Pillsbury's
refrigerated cookie dough and frozen toaster strudal made up the
majority of those two billion in sales. Oh wow, I

(16:33):
did go through a frozen toaster strudal period in high school.
Oh man, my dad would not let me have those,
and I was really mad. They were sugar that was
It was like a sugar bomb, for sure, and I
think that's why I burned out. It was like a
bright high period that fizzled out quickly. But for that

(16:56):
like period I loved. Yeah, you're like, oh this, this,
this makes me feel terrible, but it tasted so good
at the moment. Right Well, According to the Pillsbury website,
which yes, now I'm like, which one, Ober, this is

(17:18):
the GM one? Okay, right, alright, you said, all right, okay,
they host over fifteen thousand recipes and the site gets
millions of visits a month. Also, I'm just sort of
endeared when companies use a lot of exclamation points in
their marketing, and I remember reading this and there was
a lot of exclamation ports. So they were very excited
about it. They also claim a can of their Crescent

(17:40):
Rolls is sold every point one eight seconds in the US,
four million Pillsbury biscuits are eating the US every day,
and that during the holiday season. They specifically said Christmas season,
Americans bake over seventeen thousand batches of Pillsbury cookies per hour. Wow, Okay,
it's a lot. Speaking of a lot, in Pillsbury broke

(18:04):
the Guinness World Record for most cookies slash biscuits iced
in an hour with one thousand, one hundred and sixty
nine cookies, which they did at the Mall of America.
Uh huh. Um. The original Pillsbury dough Boy stop motion
animation doll cost about sixteen thousand dollars, which is around

(18:27):
a hundred and forty five thousand in today's money. UM.
He measures precisely eight eight and three quarter inches tall. UM.
That's twenty two point two centimeters m now digital um.
He has appeared in over six hundred commercials for over
fifty different products. Yes, and we're going to get into

(18:49):
more of the history of the Pillsbury dough Boy in
the in the history section. But interestingly enough, I hadn't
even told I was just talking to a friend of mine,
and I hadn't told her we were doing this research.
We were. She's talking about Star Wars, of course, but
she was saying she her parents watched the show. That's
kind of about like finding I don't know, antiques and

(19:10):
people's houses and selling it for way more and she
said there was an episode about um, they had the
Pillsbury dough boy. Uh, and they were talking about like
how difficult it was to work and how big of
a deal it was. Yeah. Yeah, no, stop stop motion
is no joke. Like that's a lot of a lot
of work. Mm hmmm, And we are going to talk

(19:32):
about it. I'm very excited to talk about you know,
if we love a good mascot. Yes, yes, uh. And
we've got lots more history stuff for you, but first
we've got a quick break for a word from our sponsors.

(19:53):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you. And
I guess we should have said we've we've done several
related episodes to this one. Perhaps Betty Crocker coming to
mind for me. Yeah, absolutely, Um, and I guess like
in a in a weird way, maybe maybe Kelloggs. Yeah yeah, yeah, Um,

(20:19):
I could see that one. I could see that one. Uh.
But that will all it will all become clear, dear listener.
Why that is or perhaps not? Because this is pretty
like I said, pretty hydro, like a lot going on
in this outline. Um, but okay, So Charles Alfred Pillsbury

(20:40):
was born into a middle class family in New Hampshire
in eighteen forty two, and his father was a shopkeeper.
Uh And in eighteen sixty three Charles graduated from Dartmouth
College and he then moved to Canada to work as
a clerk before relocating to Minneapolis to work with his uncle,
John S. Pillsbury in teen sixty nine. Um And the

(21:02):
records get a bit confusing here, just based on like
when you called like the official start of the company,
but according to the company's timeline, in eighteen sixty nine,
Charles Pillsbury established the Pillsbury Flour Mills Company in Minnesota. Allegedly,
John uncle John convinced Charles and his father George to

(21:24):
pull together ten thousand dollars to purchase one third of
a local flour mill business that was struggling, and this
was a risk because neither had experience in flour milling,
which was an unstable industry at the time. Within the
same year, they joined forces with competitor Washburn Crosby to

(21:45):
form the Minneapolis Miller's Association and within three years UM
they were able to make a profit. Washburn Crosby would
eventually evolve into General Mills. Um And at the time
these mills were water driven. UM. Pillsberry's and Washburing Crosby's
mills both used the Saint Anthony Falls um and faced

(22:07):
each other across the Mississippi River just like sitting there
looking at each other all the time. Enemies and yet friends. Enemies. Yes.
One of the ways that Pillsbury really pushed themselves and
kept themselves competitive was in how they were early adopters

(22:28):
and innovators of technology in their industry. UM So, for instance,
they used modern technology to improve their own milling equipment
so that it was more efficient at harvesting the tough
local wheat. Things like steel rollers that revolutionized flour milling
and earned flour from that region an international reputation. Things

(22:48):
like that, along with the acquisition of two additional milling machines,
enabled them to produce a daily two thousand barrels of
flour by eighteen seventy two. That same year, Charles reorganized
the company, adding some relatives as partners to create the
c A. Pillsbury and Company. UM. So that also sometimes
comes up as like the first date that this whole

(23:09):
thing started. Um. But he also trademarked the slogan Pillsbury's
Best with four excess. I thought that was a mistake
for the longest time. I was like, so they're like,
is this some kind of weird censorship or are they
not saying? But the excess denote qualities, So three excess
is like really good for excess is like the best? Yes, right.

(23:35):
Pillsbury added six more mills, including one that was the
largest in the world at the time, and it was
technologically advanced UM during the eighties, so this allowed for
the company to triple their production. They did take a hit, however,
after fires damaged three of their mills, and this was
a serious problem at the time flower mill fires because

(23:57):
flower is combustible UM, and there weren't really a lot
of safety precautions going on in the industry or any
industry at the time. UM. You can see the American
Shadows episode. I do this other show called American Shadows
about kind of historical true crime sort of stuff, and
we did a segment about UM fire at the Washburn

(24:17):
Mills UM in a episode called Bitter Sweet, Oh I
Love It. Yes anyway, Yes, Pillsbury had almost recovered from
these fires when they were purchased by an English financial
syndicate in eighty nine. Well, that also bought up other
competing mills in the area, along with equipment like water

(24:39):
power rights. Charles Pillsbury stayed in a leadership position at
this newly created Pillsbury Washburn Flower Mills Company Limited um
by E. They were producing ten thousand barrels of flour
a day and they became the world's largest billion company.
Now this this kind of paragraph right here is one
of these examples of what I'm talking about where I

(24:59):
try to go into this like this English company, and
I was like, how much is interesting and worth saying?
I mean, it's all worth mentioning that. How far should
I the company politics and intrigue? Yes, um I did
want to include this. However, Charles also started one of
the country's first profit sharing plans for employees in three

(25:23):
and invested in the electrification of Minneapolis and their streetcar system.
So this is kind of revolutionary at the time. Yeah, yeah,
and I and I and I will say the takeaway
from the Washburn Crosby Mills fire was that, um uh,
the runners of those mills like really put in place
good changes to to help out with the with the

(25:46):
safety of their of their humans, and that was that
was great good. Yeah, yes, definitely um. Another piece of
Pillsbury success was all about strategy. In the nineties, they
pivot it to focus on selling to retailers. They made
advertising a priority. However, there were hiccups in the early

(26:09):
twentieth century. They struggled with freight rates and a general
depression in the agricultural field. After a poor harvest in
nineteen o seven and the company went into receivership, three men,
including Charles A. Pillsbury's son Charles S. Pillsbury UM, were
put in charge of reorganizing the company once again, and
they renamed it the Pillsbury Mills Flower Company. This reorganization

(26:33):
involved changing how the mills were run and a game
changing decision to build their own lab for product research.
Through things like this, the company recovered and more and
in they were able to purchase all the remaining outstanding
assets from Pillsbury Washburn. During the same decade, they started

(26:53):
opening new plants in the area and a little later
started acquiring other companies kinds of other companies. But oh, yeah,
we're gonna get into that. But yeah, but first brief
architecture aside, Yes, because I gathered this is a big
deal and I really want to hear from listeners about this,
UM if you know more. In nineteen eighteen, Charles's son,

(27:17):
John S. Billsbury constructed the South Wales Estate on Bracken's
Point in Minnetonka, Minnesota, which he and his wife Eleanor
are often frequented during the summer. A little over a
decade later, in nineteen thirty, it became the permanent Pillsbury
family home. It was sold for the first time after
Eleanor's death at one hundred and four in in it

(27:40):
was demolished to make way for condom Yeah, and from
what I understand, it was a very storied property. Yeah yeah,
So listeners, we really yeah right in yeah, Minnesota, right
in m and the original Minneapolisteen mansion owned by Charles
Pillsbury was made into the headquarters for Blind Inc. B

(28:00):
l I n D. Capitalized to function as a quote
modern training center for the blind without sacrificing the charm
and beauty of the original structure. In nineteen three, UM
I also believe the original mill is still running. But again, listeners,
you gotta let us know, yeah, are still standing as
perhaps a better word back to the company, though UM Pillsbury.

(28:24):
They were still thinking of ways to innovate, and by
two they had expanded their product line to include cereals
and cake flour. In nineteen thirty one, Pillsbury debut their
iconic can popping technology. I think we talked about that
in the Velvita episode. We've talked about it before. Somewhere

(28:46):
in the nineteen forties, Pillsbury purchased Globe Grain and Milling
Company for three million dollars and continued producing their lines
of pastas and pancake and biscuit mixes, which is, Yeah,
this is a recurrent theme of like purchasing something, continuing
to make what they made. Through this, they were able
to reach a flour milling record of forty barrels a day.

(29:08):
And yeah, I know. In nine four they changed their
name once again to Pillsbury Mills Incorporated. UM. Also during
this decade, they started exporting flour and started selling food
products to hotels and restaurants, and supplied products for the U. S.
Army during World during World War Two. UM, and gosh,

(29:30):
that's not all. That's not all. They started offering a
slew of new products in the nineteen forties, dry soup mixes,
boxed cake mixes, and when they acquired Ballard and Ballard
Company in ninety one, they kept producing and selling their
line of refrigerated foods. Their expansion continued throughout the fifties,

(29:53):
um opening milling operations in Canada and boosting their storage capacity.
Soon after, they started purchasing mills and trees like Venezuela,
the Philippines, Guatemala, France, Australia and Germany. In nineteen sixty
they acquired their first non food purchase, a company that
sold household cleaners. By nineteen sixty three, their name appeared

(30:14):
on one seven product labels later, including a drink mix
meant to compete with kool Aid that included some highly
offensive names, included that because I've seen those in a
like I recently watched an old timey movie and I
saw it in the background. I was like, oh yeah.
And also a powdered milkshake mix called mood Juice which

(30:34):
moo juice moo Juice, which they discontinued because it seemingly
didn't work out very well. Okay, yeah, yeah, um that
bake off. Pillsbury launched their annual Pillsbury Bake Off in
ninety nine The first iteration was hosted at the Waldorf
Storia Hotel in New York City by radio personality Ari

(30:56):
link Letter. Since then, dishes like bunt cakes and nut
blossoms have been popularized and become classics, in part due
to this event. Theodora's small field one dollars for entry
of no need water rising twist at this first this
first event, uh and yes. The bakeoff moved to every

(31:18):
two years in nineteen seventy six, and then switched back
to annual in and then took a hiatus from I
didn't see anything about the pandemic, but I'm assuming there's
been a yeah. Yeah it was. I Oh, I didn't
check whether it was on, but it was definitely so. Yeah.

(31:41):
And with technological developments of the fifties and sixties and
the American preference for convenience that happened in those decades,
Pillsbury sought to cash in on all of that, with
things like the nineteen sixty seven purchase of fast food
chain Burger King, which I did not know. I had
no idea. By the following year, the company owned interest

(32:04):
in a wide range of industries, from life insurance to
computer time sharing. Yes, under new leadership. In nineteen seventy three,
non related food interests were sold off so that the
company could focus solely on food products. Over the seventies
and eighties, the company acquired Totino's Finer Foods and Green

(32:25):
Giant UH Steak in Ale Hogendes von de camp which
is the seafood kind of kind of thing. Um Diverse
of Foods Incorporated and quick Walk Incorporated and restaurants provided
this huge chunk of cash and growth through them during
this time. UH these purchases significantly increased the company's sales.

(32:47):
By the nineteen eighties, Pillsbury provided ten percent of America's
Flower Yeah. From nineteen seventy two to nineteen eighties six,
the company's sales and earnings continued on an upward trajector.
It was like truly amazing, Yeah, They're earnings almost doubled
from nineteen eighty to nine five. By four their products

(33:09):
were available in fifty five countries. And speaking of technological developments,
Pillsbury food scientists Dr Howard Bauman was involved in developing
edible cubes for astronauts in the nineteen sixties. When astronauts
Scott Carpenter snacked on the cubes in. In nineteen sixty two,

(33:30):
he became the first person to eat solid food in space.
Oh if we if we mentioned that Pillsbury was part
of that in our space food episode, I do not
remember us doing it. That is, that's fascinating, it is
And you know we love a good space food fact.
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh, but this also brings us
to something else. We love mascots. So one piece of

(33:55):
Pillsbury's success was indeed advertising. In nineteen sixty five, the
company debuted Poppin Fresh, a k a. The tills Very
dough Boy. The dough Boy was created by the Leo
Burnett ad agency and first voice by actor Paul Freeze. Yeah.
Mr Poppin Fresh was apparently created by UM, a guy

(34:20):
who worked for this agency named Riddy Pears, and he
was he had this concept of this little bit of
anthropomorphic dough just kind of popping out of one of
these canisters and coming to life. UM, and they they
worked on it. UM. The voice Paul Paul Freeze beat

(34:42):
out some fifty other actors who auditioned for the voice,
including the voice of Tigger Paul Winchell m hm uh.
The design and original drawing for this character was done
by one Martin Nodle, who was employed by the agency
at the time, but he's also behind the original Green
Lantern uh and earned a name for himself in the

(35:04):
comic book Rolls. To bring the Doughboy to life, the
company employed a pioneer in the realm of computer graphics,
Pacific Data Images. They formed this plan to create thirteen
stop motion ads like immediately like. It was an aggressive campaign,
um and within three years it worked like s of
American consumers recognized the doughe boy. Dang, that's fast. According

(35:31):
to inventors dot org quote, his formal name is Poppin Fresh.
The only music he ever performed was rap. He is
all dough, He has blue eyes. He always wears a
baker's hat and scarf. He originates from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He
loves to bake, and twenty years ago he had a
wife and two pets. I'm sorry, it's funny. Now it's

(35:53):
very It's there's yep, I was. I was laughing a
lot considering the kind of like like dryness of some
of this material. Um. Yeah, inventors dot org, I will
say is missing a few details, including the other musical
stylings of our friend Poppin Fresh. According to General Mills,

(36:16):
he's also appeared as an opera singer and a rock
star and has played instruments ranging from the harmonica to
the violin, to the bugle to the accordion. Oh very challenged,
I see. And as the early nineties seventies, we were

(36:36):
also introduced to the Popin Fresh doll that was so
popular the company released dolls for the whole family, including
wife Poppy Fresh, kids Popper and Bun Bun Dog, Flapjack,
Cat Biscuit, and grandparents grand Mom Er and grand Papper
and Uncle Rowlie. Never forget, Never forget. I think there

(36:58):
were finger puppets and they was like a little Vinyl
playhouse set. Oh my gosh. I did read that they
were collector's items. Now, yeah, there was. There was also
a family teddy bear by the name of Cupcake. And
yes there was a stuffed animal. Oh my gosh. Uh
and a few young actors appeared in these commercials before

(37:18):
they got big, including Michael Sarah, Kirsten Dunce, and Drew Barrymore. Yeah. Also,
according to the Pillsbury site, at one point, Popping Poppin
Pop and Fresh was receiving two d fan letters a week.
Oh and according to mental Floss, the original stop motion
animation called for five bodies and fifteen heads. And as

(37:41):
I said, I literally was just talking to somebody about this,
so you know, the universe was sending me a sign again. Yeah,
it's all points converge on popping fresh. Oh gosh, oh gosh.
But this growth that we've been describing for Pillsbury could

(38:03):
not continue forever, and by the mid nineteen eighties it
had begun to slow. They tried a few things to
combat this um, some that worked and some that didn't,
including developing concept restaurants and a line of frozen and
microwavable foods. However, the company's progress continued to slow in decline,
so the higher ups decided to reduce their restaurant division

(38:25):
by their earnings dropped to half that of the year before,
around seven million dollars. That same year, the new president
tried unsuccessfully to fight off a takeover, and in nine
the company was absorbed by the British distilling company Grand Metropolitan. Uh.
This catapulted the Grand met as it was called, to
become the eighth largest food manufacturing company in the world.

(38:48):
And this is another like it was very business ee
stock market marketing, so I didn't go into it. It
was interesting UM, but I was like, okay, this is
a little two technical huh. Right. So the Grand Net
did some shuffling and reorganizing and profits increased. In the
early nineteen nineties, they moved away from staple products and

(39:10):
focused more on branded items and international expansion, acquiring more
companies along the way. In they introduced eighty new products. UM.
As of ninety six, Pillsbury was only available in the
United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and South Africa. UM and Right.

(39:31):
Grand Mett was looking to expand UM back into the
United Kingdom at the time, as well as other international
markets UM and in the UK specifically UM, even though
the brand had previously failed to catch on a couple
of different times. A representative for the company said of

(39:52):
Pillsbury and the dough Boy, there's a latent awareness it does.
It sounds kind of menacing. I don't know. All points
converge on the Doughboy. We're uncovering something here. I don't know.

(40:14):
In the Grand Met merge with Guinness to form Dago.
That is another I knew there was something else our
Guinness episode, UM you could also check out oh yeah, yeah, yes.
And through this merger, alcohol became their most profitable sector,
and the food side of the business, including Pillsbury, just
wasn't the focus and it wasn't keeping up. So in

(40:36):
two thousand one, Dago sold Pillsbury to General Mills and
a really complicated deal that yeah, I'm not going to
go into. UM. The sale was valued at ten point
five billion dollars, but the next few years were pretty
rocky with decreasing sales and payouts. Yeah, this this deal

(40:57):
was a lot um. You know, Like we've been talking about,
the two companies had been local competitors, literally across the
river for forever. UM. They had gone to court over
patent infringement at least once. I only found one record,
but I honestly assume it's more than that. UM. And
also during this deal, UM, General Mills was looking to

(41:20):
shave some four hundred million dollars in costs by consolidating
across Pillsbury General Mills UM. So there was there was
some controversy, there were some opinions to be had UM
while acquiring Pillsbury. There there was like a bunch of
hubbub in the news about whether General Mills was going

(41:42):
to need to sell their Betty Crocker shelf Stable baking
mixed line and so not to get hit with antitrust suits.
Um and they were It sounded like planning on doing
that for a minute, but wound up instead selling Pillsberries
making mixed division to another company called the International Multi

(42:02):
Foods Corporation that was for three hundred and four point
five million dollars in cash that same year two thousand one. Yeah,
I'm so right. So that is that is where upon
anything that's in the baking aisle became part of a
different company, the cake mixes, the frosting, etcetera. The fun

(42:23):
Fetti brand was part of the deal. Multi Foods already
had a bunch of other baking aisle brands and its
portfolio um and they were bought by Smuckers in two
thousand four, UM who then turned around and sold um
It's baking aisle brands to a newly formed private company

(42:44):
called Hometown Food Company. In that total deal was worth
three d seventy five million dollars UM and apparently the
Pillsbury division was worth some two hundred million a year
at the time. Yeah, yeah, Um what what a web

(43:05):
we weave? Um? But back to the dough Boy. Dough
Boy update Uh, pop and Fresh was number six in
Advertising Ages list of top ad icons of the twenty century. Um.
He's been a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade
since two thousand nine. Um was the dough Boys Birthday anniversary. Anyway,

(43:35):
he now appears on packaging and over twenty countries. Mm
hmmm um. Throughout the twenty teens, though, um, back to
the general mills side, sales of refrigerated does were dropping
as consumers moved away from products that require even that
amount of work in favor of ready made products um.

(43:58):
And also away from sugar and other carbs in general. Um,
Even sales of convenience um, frozen baked goods like like
those toaster stroodles were dropping. Um I know, I know. Um,
so in Pillsbury started selling refrigerated kits to make it
even easier to make those like like pull apart garlic

(44:22):
or or or garlic rolls or monkey bread. Yeah. Um
and similar like half homemade classics or previously you would
have had to have brought the garlic oil or cinnamon
sugar to your own party. Now it's all packaged up
there in a kid. UM. Also, they debuted cookie dough
specifically meant to be snacked on without baking. Like. Not

(44:45):
only did they make it safe or safer anyway to
to to eat their rale cookie dough, they also they
just sold it in little started selling in little tubs,
little balls of it pre just just ready to pop
in your mouth, popping frozen or popping refrigerated. Yeah gosh. Um.

(45:11):
Also also from they debuted ready to eat snap cakes
and cookies and the snack aisle for the first time,
including a confetti cookie because they can't use fun fetty.
Oh gosh, I love this. I know what's so steepid?
I love it? Yeah me too, Um yeah ready ready made.

(45:35):
UM Snack sales have been up during the pandemic, and
General Mills seems real dedicated to making the business work. Um.
They announced a sixty five million dollar upgrade to UM
the plant in Tennessee that makes yo Play and Pillsberry
refrigerated products. So mhm mm hmm um. However, pandemic mix

(46:00):
supply chain shortages have affected the brand apparently. UM. Apparently,
General Mills usually stocks it's refrigerated stuff to night percent
plus of the demand rate, but as of February to March,
Pillsbury refrigerated pizza dough, for example, was down to around

(46:22):
of the demand rate. Um A company reps said that
the issue was ingredient shortages fats and oils and starch
and packaging. Yeah. Um. Wheat prices also are currently rising,
with futures up by five point three as of the
beginning of March um and Rushi's attack on Ukraine, as
those two countries produced some fourteen percent of the world's wheat.

(46:46):
So everyone is kind of keeping an eye on brands
like this that deal with products like that. Yeah. Yeah,
and this has been really interesting. It was, as you said,
a lot of like kind of dryer stuff and like
a lot of like business e stuff. But I mean

(47:08):
it was interesting to see how many companies got involved. Um,
if you're curious, like the companies um that I was
mentioning kind of my list during the seventies and eighties,
they don't own all of those anymore. Uh. Yeah, everything
has changed hands so many times at this point, yes, Uh,

(47:28):
which I do legitimately find fascinating. I know, it's kind
of like one of those heavy I gotta sit with
this in my brain. Make sure you know what it means,
but I do find it interesting. Oh, yes, absolutely, yes,
well I think that's what we have to say about
Pillsbury for now. It is. We do have some listener

(47:50):
mail for you, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with

(48:14):
Oh my goodness, that was adorable. We both kind of
panicked about the opening up the canister, you know, fresh
fresh um Dale wrote, most military units have to undergo
readiness inspections, which often include simulated disasters. To fix in

(48:39):
my submarine was no exception. Twice a year we would
come in and pick up our writers, then slip back
out to sea. For the next three to four days.
We would endure oral and written examinations and said disaster drills.
During this evolution, you felt lucky to get more than
three hours of sleep but day, sometimes even all in
one shot. Of course, our captain had prepared us for

(48:59):
this by running his own training sessions, leaving us already exhausted.
We had come to the end of one such inspection.
I don't remember a specific grade, but we had passed
Um on our way back to Port, where I would
see my wife and daughters for the first time in
three months. I had a few minutes to sit before
going onto my next watch station. Someone had put a
cassette tape into the ship's player and I heard this

(49:20):
awesome song that express so well my current mental state.
I failed to check who the singer was, and though
I looked often, I never could find the song. Years later,
a lovely thing called the Internet finally made that searches
more possible, typing in the few words I remembered into
the iTunes search bar I was rewarded as those lyrics

(49:41):
came alive again. I want cold pizza for breakfast and
to Pincho, cold spaghetti would do the songs by Christine
Lavin and should definitely give it a lesson. Okay, yes
this is in response to our call cold Pizza. We
love it here. Yes, I've never heard this song, but

(50:03):
I love that. You know, sometimes she just wake up
in the morning you don't want to eat anything up.
You're like, well, yeah, it's gonna be great cold convenience foods, right,
so good? Okay, um, Barbie wrote, when I listened to

(50:23):
your podcast about mangoes. I was instantly transported back to
my childhood in South Florida, where we lived in a
house with two mango trees. My mother loved the mangoes
from her trees and ate them often throughout their growing season.
They were so juicy that each time she had one,
she would say, these are so juicy, I should eat
them in the bathtub. I don't know if she ever
did that, but I saw her frequently leaning over the

(50:45):
kitchen sink enjoying one of her beloved juicy mangoes. During
your Black Pudding episode, you mentioned that people sometimes make
negative comments about the foods that other people eat. When
my husband's sixteen year old son came to live with us,
he had eating preferences there were so different from ours,
and our eating habits were strange to him. One of
the first house rules we made was that no one

(51:05):
could comment on anyone else's food. It went a long
way to create harmony in our home. Right. Oh yeah,
that can get so personal so fast. You can feel attacked. Yeah,
you're like, no, this is delicious, and it's also part
of my childhood and also new Yeah right, yeah, yeah, exactly.

(51:26):
I think that's a good that's a pretty good rule. Um. Also,
I love the eating the mangoes in the o s.
I do stuff like that. Sometimes the fruit that I
know is just gonna be so messy. You're just like,
oh yeah, screw it. Just this is where I live now.
Yeah yeah, that makes me happy. Absolutely. Yes. Um well,
thanks to vote that those listeners whore writing. If you

(51:48):
would like to write to us that you can our
emails hello at savor pod dot com. We're also in
social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram at sabor pod, and we do hope to hear
from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super

(52:10):
producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way