Doll-A-Day 2019 #28: Poppie Fresh

  I'm very late getting today's post up. Emma and I took Ivy back to college yesterday,and when I got home I went straight to the bath tub and bed. I hate leaving Ivy at school, but before we left she was already given a big hug by her friend Esther and greeted by several other friends,so she's in good hands.
  Today's doll is one that will be familiar to many of you,but not necessarily directly. She's this girl.

She looks familiar,right? You probably know her brother a bit better than you know her.

In fact, you may not know her at all. Her name is Poppie Fresh.

Poppie Fresh was Poppin Fresh, The Pillsbury Doughboy's sister. (You can see my post on the history of Poppin Fresh and my Uncle Rollie toy HERE.)
There were other members of the family,which were not used in commercials,but were produced as toys. these included Grandmommer and Grandpopper,younger siblings Bun Bun and Popper, a dog,Flapjack, and a cat, Biscuit. You can see my post on Bun Bun and biscuit HERE.

Bun Bun,Poppie,Biscuit,and Poppin Fresh.

She appeared in  the early 1970's, and seems to have been faded out by the end of the decade.

The doll is dated 1972.

She was created, (but not designed), by a woman named Carol H. Williams,working with original Doughboy creator Rudy Perz.
 

Carol H. Williams

Poppie's tag line was 'The little girl with the big ideas'.
 

These dolls are notorious for collecting dirt stains and marks. Once it's on there. even dust is hard to remove to the point where they're white again.

This Poppie doll is 6" tall.

This size Poppie and Poppin Fresh dolls came on plastic stands.

Poppie advertised Pillsbury's sweet products,like cinnamon rolls. Her first product was danish.
 

It's been debated whether Poppie is Poppin  Fresh's wife or sister. This ad refers to her as his 'little helper',and her creator has referred to her as 'childlike' ,and  'a young girl',so I think she's his sister.

  While Poppin Fresh is famous for being poked in the belly,it was decided, after what Williams described as a 'huge discussion', not to allow such behavior with Poppie. Williams felt that it would be inappropriate to have a large male hand poke the stomach of a small girl who hadn't consented to it. Concerning the decision,Williams said in 2017, "We in no way wanted to normalize abusive behavior towards women". Was it ever considered abusive behavior towards the Doughboy? He seems to find it ticklish. You can watch one of her commercials HERE. (She seems to find it amusing when Poppin Fresh is poked and left with a chocolate finger print on his stomach.)
  Carol H. Williams is also credited with the tagline for the famous Secret deodorant campaign, 'Strong enough for a man,but made for a woman'. Williams rose through the ranks at the advertising firm of  Leo Burnett,where she created Poppie, becoming the first woman to be creative director,and eventually become the Senior Vice President. In 2017 she was accepted into the Advertising Hall of Fame,becoming the second African American woman,and the first African American woman in a creative position in advertising, to do so.(The first was Catherine L. Hughes, the founder of Radio One, the country’s largest African American controlled multimedia company.) Today Williams is the founder,president, and CEO of her own advertising firm,Carol H. Williams Advertising. That's no small feat,considering statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that fewer than 1 percent of executives in advertising, public relations and related services are African American women.
 

  Poppie is pretty much forgotten now, but she appeared on quite a few products in her day,like magnets,and as a small finger puppet version of today's doll. She's even been used for more recent products,like a salt and pepper shaker set with Poppin Fresh,
That's it for today. Tomorrow is just another doll.