Dolmio's puppet Papa steps out of a Shepherd's Bush billboard for its 40th anniversary

A 40-year-old sauce brand wanted to bring its puppet family back after roughly a decade away without the return feeling like a rerun of the old puppet ads.

Push Papa physically beyond the billboard frame — a 3D puppet emerging with a steaming bowl of bolognese — so the comeback is a street spectacle, not a poster.

A 96-sheet special build in Shepherd's Bush, created with JACK and St Marks Studios and its creative studio, put a dimensional Papa breaking out of the artwork beside a digital screen; Papa and Mama then appeared on site to meet passersby and pose for photographs.

No commercial results were reported. The site combined physical build, digital screen and live puppet appearances, giving the anniversary a street-level moment in Shepherd's Bush and a photo opportunity that travels with passersby.

Dolmio marked its 40th anniversary by bringing its puppet family back into advertising after about a decade away, under the platform "When's your Dolmio Day?". In Shepherd's Bush, London, the centerpiece was a 96-sheet special-build billboard where a 3D Papa appears to emerge from the creative holding a bowl of "steaming" bolognese, supported by a digital screen. The build was created with JACK and St Marks Studios and its creative studio.

The physical extension does the heavy lifting. Instead of containing the character inside the artwork, the campaign pushes him past the frame, changing the scale of the familiar puppet world. The bowl keeps the product itself at the center of the spectacle, so the audience gets appetite appeal alongside nostalgia. The digital screen adds motion and variation around the same visual system, letting static structure and moving content work as one takeover.

The characters also stepped off the board: Papa and Mama appeared on site to meet passersby and pose for photographs, turning the billboard into a live brand moment whose images travel beyond the location. The comeback thus runs on familiar assets carried by current formats — dimensional OOH, digital media and live activation — rather than a straight rerun of the old puppet commercials.

A heritage brand revived a decades-old character asset without repeating its old ads, by changing the media format instead.

The 3D break-out ties the special build to a recognizable brand asset, so the extension feels like part of the puppet's own world rather than decoration.

The product stays central: Papa's steaming bolognese bowl keeps the sauce inside the spectacle.

Physical build, digital screen and live puppet appearances stack into one takeover aimed at two audiences — street passersby and the people who later see their photos.

Nostalgia lands harder when the format is new: keep the familiar character and let a contemporary medium — a dimensional billboard, a live appearance — carry the comeback.

The activation ran in Shepherd's Bush in October 2026 as part of the "When's your Dolmio Day?" anniversary campaign. No sales, reach or sentiment figures were reported in the source.