Pillsbury Doughboy
It would be nice if everything were adorable. Adorable bosses. Adorable junk mail. Adorable lower back pain. In reality, there aren't too many things that are adorable, but the Pillsbury Doughboy certainly does make the list.
The "Doughboy Fun" area of Pillsbury.com features downloadable Doughboy ads, buddy icons, wallpapers and a branded desktop application. There's also the Dancin' Doughboy viral component that lets users share the videos they make of the Doughboy cutting a rug.
Pillsbury's use of the Doughboy online seems to follow some simple syllogistic reasoning: people want to surround themselves with cute things. The Pillsbury Doughboy is cute; therefore, people want to surround themselves with the Pillsbury Doughboy. The Pillsbury site makes cute ownership a convenient reality. People interested in the character get a little slice of digital delight, while Pillsbury is able to not so subtly insert a diminutive salesman onto consumers' computers.
