The girl in THAT Folger's commercial

[JRoss]

You know that one Folger's coffee commercial, the one from like 10 years ago? The one with the brother and sister? Yeah, the notoriously creepy one. Someone on Reddit posted a parody version of it. Gross.

Anyway, that got me and my wife laughing and reminiscing about the first time we saw that commercial. Turns out, the girl from that ad is Catherine Combs, the daughter of Jeffrey Combs. Who'da thunkit?

Here's that commercial, BTW:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I've literally never seen that commercial before. I guess that happens when you completely cut out commercials from your television consumption.

 

[JRoss]

I've literally never seen that commercial before. I guess that happens when you completely cut out commercials from your television consumption.

It came out back in 2009. And they kept bringing it back every year after that. But do you get what I mean about creepy?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Not seeing the creep factor. I didn't in 2009 either.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Ah, right. 2009. I was too busy serving the Navy in Japan at that time. No wonder I missed it.

 

[Gaith]

I'd never heard of the commercial, but when I saw it just now, I suspected it was a deviously brilliant plot to garner tons of free word-of-mouth and publicity by making a commercial that was definitely horny, but also plausibly innocent. It really is that shared, silent look at the end that makes it questionable, and that could definitely have been a trick of editing and extra footage. GQ did a whole article about it, however, and apparently the subtext really was accidental. The best part?

Besides the jokes, of which there are plenty, the ad also began to circulate for another reason: as inspiration for fan fiction. Artists on DeviantArt paid visual tribute to it, while—as Gawker pointed out in 2012—fan fiction site Archive of Our Own has a whole section devoted to the “Folgers ‘Home for the Holidays’ commercial.” [...] This fandom is collectively known as “Folgercest” or “Folgerscest.” The most popular of these works is a nearly 10,000-word, incredibly involved story titled “A Home For All Seasons” in which—spoiler—the brother dies.​

Sadly, Ms. Coombs declined to be interviewed for the piece, though the actor gamely participated.

 

[JRoss]

Thing is, they both seem to be really good actors. Wonder why we haven't seen them in much? Yeah, I'll take their word on the fanfic.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Sadly, Ms. Coombs declined to be interviewed for the piece, though the actor gamely participated.

They were hoping she'd spill the beans.

 

[Ovation]

They were hoping she'd spill the beans.

Ok. I’ll admit it. This got a chuckle.

 

[theenglish]

I've never seen that article before. But the weirdest part is the racist dig at West Africa. He can't get a decent cup of coffee in West Africa? AND he considers Folgers to be real coffee? WTF?

 

[Forbin]

So, not liking local coffee over your favorite brand is now racist?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I don't remember the commercial but I don't get a creepy vibe either. It does feel more like a cloy 1989 commercial rather than 2009.

 

[Silvercrest]

Now I wanna see how this stacks up against the "Taster's Choice" couple.

 

[The Wormhole]

Commercial actually seems vaguely familiar. If it's from 2009, then I probably saw it back in the day at some point.

Everyone going off about incest in the comments section is amusing, but what really made me laugh is the comment "Incest aside, is he implying that Africa doesn't have 'real coffee'???"

 

[JRoss]

Yes, it seems that he is. So according to the producer and director, the writer, who has since passed away, was inspired by his own son. His son served in the Peace Corps in West Africa. They swear up and down that nobody thought anything of it until the comments started popping up. The actor who plays the brother says that he hasn't seen the sister since they filmed, but that they got along well and that it felt brothery-sistery.

I think what does it are the looks that the two exchange near the end. I don't have a sister myself, but I just couldn't imagine interacting with one that way. Got a gag from my wife when I asked if her and her big brother ever talk or look at each other like that.

Always makes me wonder how or why they choose certain commercials to come back, year after year.

 

[Qonundrum]

It's a tradition regarding mountain grown Star Trek actors, it seems:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[JRoss]

Ugh, don't remind me that Stephen Collins was in Star Trek. I used to think he was such a fascinating actor. I even told my wife "Wow, it sure goes against type to see him playing a villain on No Ordinary Family. Could you imagine him being a bad guy"? Hmm.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I hadn't even heard of this commercial until December, when GQ did an oral history article on the commercial, talking to the people behind it (except Catherine Combs, who declined to participate) and some of the fans in the subculture around it. No one who worked on the commercial thought there wasn't anything incest-y about it.

 

[Samurai8472]

I hate remakes. I prefer the original

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[The Wormhole]

I hadn't even heard of this commercial until December, when GQ did an oral history article on the commercial, talking to the people behind it (except Catherine Combs, who declined to participate) and some of the fans in the subculture around it. No one who worked on the commercial thought there wasn't anything incest-y about it.

Well, that article cleared something up for me. Although I said the commercial was familiar and that I suspected seeing it on TV at some point, I doubted very much I had seen it in 2009, since simply put that was a year I didn't watch very much television, especially not during the holiday season. But according to the article it stayed in circulation until 2012, so yeah, I guess I saw it at some point in 2010 or 2011, years where I did indeed watch a lot of TV, even during the holiday seasons.

Indeed, thinking back, I have vague memories of a commercial from 2011-ish with a brother and sister that seemed a bit too affectionate to one another that I now suspect is this commercial. I never for once thought the commercial was trying to imply incest, I just figured the two actors were into each other and that influenced their performance. I have found sometimes actors playing siblings tend to gel together and have better chemistry than actors playing couples do.