…and so is your popcorn!
Nothin’ says lovin’ from the…microwave (!)…than Pillsbury Microwave Popcorn!
No, really. That was a thing.
In 1985, microwave popcorn was still new and novel, and Frankie’s friends love it during the baseball game.
But what happens when you run out of it?
Why, you go into your freezer and pull out a little bit of the Poppin’ Fresh’s…poppin’ fresh!
I mean, if all you need to get great spaghetti sauce is open a jar and pour, or great potato salad is the mayonnaise you use, then by al means, you just need to open your freezer and put the bag in the microwave, right?
Seriously, click play. You’ll see!
Microwave popcorn first started showing up in grocery stores in 1981, as healthier snack foods were becoming a bigger deal, though the patent for the microwave variety dates back to 1947, with the first microwave-safe popcorn bag to go into production in the 1970s via General Mills. The earliest microwave popcorn – believe it or not – required refrigeration. But Pillsbury (and even Orville Redenbacher) took it one step further – freshness maintained through freezing your popcorn!
While shelf-stable popcorn became a thing in 1984, thanks to Act II, Pillsbury still pressed ahead with their frozen popcorn, which I’m sure fit right alongside that Pillsbury Cookie Dough in the freezer. By 1987, the Microwave Popcorn Wars were being waged, with Pillsbury in the fray. However, by the end of the 1980s, frozen popcorn seemed to be disappear, as more companies took Act II’s lead and found a way to make popcorn more shelf-stable.
As for Pillsbury, though they’re not making popcorn anymore, the name is still around. The Pillsbury Company, which was established in 1872, was sold to General Mills in 2001, and later acquired by Smucker’s. There’s still plenty of “poppin’ fresh” goodness made with lovin’ from the oven. Biscuits, cookies, cornbread, pie crust, snack cakes (just had them recently, they’re so good!), bread pizza crust – there’s nothing the Doughboy hasn’t made delicious.
And at one time, popcorn was on that list.
As for “Poppin’ Fresh,” the Pillsbury mascot, made his first appearance on November 7, 1965, create by Rudy Perz of advertising agency Leo Burnett. He is currently voiced by a live action icon of television advertising, JoBe Cerny, best known as Procter and Gamble’s “Cheer Man.”
He not only gets the laundry clean, he makes life’s pastries a little sweeter.
Now that, my friends, is a homerun!
And only Frankie knows where the popcorn comes from.
Have a great Throwback Thursday!