• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 2, 2015

Ever since the sixties, the Pillsbury Dough Boy has been giggling after getting poked or tickled in TV commercials. The iconic character was created for General Mills by Leo Burnett Creative Director Rudolph Perz.

Sadly, Perez, who was 89, died April 1. Perez envisioned Dough Boy while sitting at his kitchen table and imagining him jumping out of a roll of dough. Adding personality to the dough ball, Perz added the now ubiquitous scarf.

Of Perez, daughter Martha Mora said: “He was from the glory days of 'critter' advertising. The one image I have of my dad was of him tapping the can of refrigerated dough against the kitchen table. That’s how his mind worked for everything. The wheels were always turning and you never were sure what idea he would come up with. There was always a twinkle in his eye and he loved the element of surprise.”