Two of television's funniest Pauls—writer/director Paul Feig and comedian Paul F. Tompkins—have teamed up to create Ford's newest marketing icon: a lascivious "spokespuppet" named Doug. In a series of online videos, Doug (voiced by Tompkins) helps highlight the features of the 2012 Ford Focus while making inappropriate advances at every woman in sight. If the results are reminiscent of The Office, that's probably because Feig has directed more than a few episodes. Like most marketing Web videos, the clips are quite a bit longer than they need to be, but there are some real gems hidden among the product-description bullet points. Upon being told the Focus has double-French-stitched seats, Doug sagely points out that riding in single-stitch seats is like being "at the town dump, sitting on garbage cans." The campaign was created by Ford and its agency, Team Detroit. Check out the introductory spot below, and two of the initial Focus feature clips after the jump. Ford plans to post new weekly clips with Doug over the coming months. If the campaign is still going in May, I hope Doug drives out to Hollywood for a VIP premiere of Mel Gibson's comeback film, in which he's saved from suicide by a tough-talking puppet.
