Pillsbury Is Bringing Back A Classic Cookie Jar Straight Out Of The '80s

Few mascots are better known and more adored than the Pillsbury Doughboy. While the company's story begins in 1869, the Pillsbury Doughboy and his now-iconic "Hoo Hoo!" slogan met American kitchens for the first time in 1965. At one time, according to the company, "Pillsbury received 1,500 requests for autographed photos, and the Doughboy was receiving 200 fan letters a week." 

Over the years, Poppin' Fresh has starred in more than 600 ads for 50 different Pillsbury products, from flaky cinnamon rolls with buttercream icing to Grands! layers biscuits, and joined the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade as a 54-foot-tall balloon. It's a big legacy for a mascot who weighs 14 ounces and stands at 8 ¾ inches tall with his chef's hat on. Now, according to a press release sent to Tasting Table, Pillsbury is celebrating his 60th birthday with a fresh batch (pun intended) of nostalgic home goods. Nostalgic home bakers, this one's for you: The 1988 ceramic Pillsbury cookie jar will be available again for a limited time.

At the time of publication, the original 1988 Pillsbury Doughboy cookie jars by Benjamin & Medwin are all over eBay. For diehard antiquers, the O.G. 1988 line can be spotted by an inscription of "Benjamin & Medwin Inc. N.Y.N.Y. 1988 The Pillsbury Company Made in Thailand" printed on the bottom of each cookie jar. Now, the same jar design is set to return on the company's website for $35 to hold all your go-to cookie recipes while supplies last.

In addition to the giggling-mascot-shaped cookie jar, Pillsbury is also releasing two more promotional products that coincide with the Doughboy's 60th birthday celebration. Arriving just in time for the holiday season, the Holiday Pillsbury Shape™ Cookie Slippers ($20) are fleece-lined scuffs printed with the designs fans know from Pillsbury's annual line of Shape sugar cookies. The blue scuffs are printed with either a Snowman, Christmas Tree, or Reindeer, and come in adult sizes S/M and L/XL.

The baking giant is also releasing a Holiday Pillsbury Shape™ Cookie Glass Set ($30), a set of two drinking glasses adorned with the same iconic Holiday Pillsbury sugar cookie shapes — and just the right-sized brim for milk-dunking. The cookie jar and the rest of the product collection are now available for pre-sale via the Pillsbury website while supplies last.

This release might prove particularly exciting for foodies looking forward to the festive wintry holiday season. To quell fall fever, Pillsbury is currently running its Halloween refrigerated sugar cookie dough shapes in grocery stores nationwide, printed with ghosts, skulls, and spooky cats.

In a modern innovation for a decades-old celebration, the Doughboy is marking "60 years as a cherished guest in homes" (as Pillsbury puts it in the press release) by extending an invitation to his own house. To shop the new product trio, Poppin' Fresh is offering a virtual peep inside his fictional home — a plush, cloudy, 2,358-sqare-foot Modern Doughhouse Revival made (conceptually) out of dough, as an interactive marketing experience. The limited-edition collectibles Pillsbury is releasing in honor of the Doughboy's birthday are shoppable online by exploring the Doughhouse and clicking on the items in their household places: the Holiday Cookie Glass Set tucked in his cabinets, the Slippers on the floor, and (of course) the Cookie Jar on the countertop.

60 years ago, the playful kitchen helper was first created by Chicago-based copywriter Rudy Perz, who imagined a delightful mascot that would pop out of a can of refrigerated dough. His first commercial (which aired on November 7, 1965) set the scene for 60 years of brand recognition, springing and declaring, "I'm Poppin' Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy!" in the well-known voice of Paul Frees (the voice actor for Boris Badenov in "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"). Per the company website, Pillsbury's Crescent Rolls are Poppin' Fresh's favorite — but, we're hungry for his secret to looking so smooth at 60 (Ponds cold cream? Dough conditioner?).