Theme 074 · Characters & mascots

Felt Puppet Show

A tabletop puppet booth: fuzzy felt, ping-pong-ball eyes, a wooden stage lip and a teal velvet curtain. Pulse is a hand puppet with a coral nose who pops up to point at the problem — but only a real human hand can press the button.

readability ●●○trust ●●○effort high

1 · HOOK0:00–0:08

The grumpy puppet sinks in from below the stage lip while paper dashboards flutter down; the placard bobs up on the snare at 0:04 and the head droops on the last beat before the drop.

2 · REVEAL0:08 (drop)

The curtains fly apart on the drop and Pulse shoots up from behind the board (0.25 s, back.out), mouth open; the marquee bulbs chase left-to-right in 16ths and the mark sign swings in on beat 2.

3 · PROOF MOMENT0:12–0:32

Pulse’s mouth flaps on every beat as its rod-arm swings to the easel; the chart line is ‘drawn’ in marker over 2 beats. The human hand enters from the right and presses Roll back on the bar downbeat — the button squashes.

Acme Pulse

Start free

4 · CTA0:36–0:45

Both puppets rise and bow together on beat 1, tagline drops in on the valance, and the felt Start free ticket slaps down on the final hit.

COMPONENT KIT

Felt hand puppet — Pulse: teal felt, ping-pong eyes, coral nose (the mark’s dot)
Grumpy co-star — grey-lilac puppet with heavy lids = the overwhelmed team
Stage booth — velvet curtain, fringed valance, wooden board that hides the hands
Placard on a stick — cream card for hook lines and the tagline
Marker easel — hand-drawn chart with −18% and the deploy line
Real hand + felt button — the human decision, deliberately not a puppet

MOTION · MUSIC

Pop-up — puppets rise from behind the board, 0.25 s back.out(1.8) with a 2-frame overshoot hold; always entering on a downbeat
Mouth flap — jaw opens on each spoken syllable, locked to 8th notes (0.25 s at 120 BPM); stepped at 12 fps for a hand-performed feel
Rod swing — arm rods swing with sine.inOut 0.5 s pendulum overshoot; the button squash is 0.1 s scaleY 1→0.8→1 on the bar downbeat

WHY / RISK · ADAPT IT

Why: Hand-puppet ads have sold products in ten seconds since the 1950s: two contrasting characters and one gag. The puppet can’t press buttons — a built-in, funny way to say the agent flags and the human decides. Risk: High production cost if shot practically, and silliness can undercut a serious incident story — keep the easel data crisp and the puppet’s gag to one beat.

Adapt to your product: Swap the easel for your own screen or chart printed on a card, give your puppet your brand’s accent colour as its nose or tuft, and let a real hand perform your product’s main action.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkins_Coffee (Jim Henson’s 10-second two-puppet ads (1957–61)) · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muppet (felt-over-foam construction, wide mouths, protruding eyes)