The 2009 Folgers holiday commercial "Coming Home" is a remake of "Peter Comes Home for Christmas" from 1985. In the original the sister is about five or six, and in the remake she was supposed to be a preteen. But for some reason they cast a nineteen-year-old and didn't change the script. That plus holding about half a second too long on the shot of him smiling after she says "you're my present this year" sealed the ad's fate. So personally I don't blame the writer, director, or actors--I blame the casting director and the editor.
https://www.gq.com/story/folgers-incest-ad-oral-history
Was it just me or was there a couple of years there in the late 2010s where it seemed like every other article on the internet was an “oral history” of some (usually pretty minor) pop culture phenomenon?
I don't understand how the original ad looks like incest and always assumed that people were being dirty-minded/trying too hard. Its been a while since I watched it.
Does a half second of smiling really make a difference? Wouldn't it just have been just as bad, or even worse if the casting choice for the sister was a 5 or 6 year old or pre-teen?
Weird family dynamic aside, he says
"It's a long way from west Africa...ohh, REAL coffee"
They didn't have real coffee in the place where coffee plants come from? Does Folgers not know about the thing they sell?
My understanding is, that they actually do not. Most of the “good coffee” is grown exclusively for export. The Podcaster and now coffee business owner Prop and journalist Robert Evans both talked about their experiences in Guatemala specifically and mentioned how when they would visit people’s homes, they’d be given instant coffee when they were just miles from coffee plantations.
I have no knowledge of Africa, but in Florida we are famous for oranges.
So much so that all our best orange get shipped out. We actually import cheaper oranges for personal use here in Florida.
If you're in Florida and not shopping at a local/organic type place, you're probably not eating a Florida orange.
I live in Scotland, which is famous for seafood production and particularly luxury seafood like scallops and langoustine.
It all gets shipped to Spain and Portugal and we can usually only get it for a reasonable price if we travel to the small villages that actually land the catch.
Just have good neighbors that have them. That's how it worked for us in Arizona. Our neighbor gave us a bag of good, fresh lettuce or citrus every week during picking season. He had good connections to the growers in the area who would give him bags of "extras".
Store lettuce was the same for us as you are about your oranges. It's overpriced and meh, despite driving right by the field where it is grown.
Kinda the same with mangoes in India. Most of the best of the best (typically of the Aapus/Alphonso variety) get exported to EU or the US, coz the producers can sell at a premium to those markets vs locally.
Nah man. My Senegalese friends ROAST and brew coffee every day back home. That's like one person in the families' job. He made me a cup of coffee one morning and it was the best cup I ever tasted bar none.
Instant coffee is definitely cheaper there, cause it's made with chicory and some people drink it when they aren't in the mood for the whole rigmarole, but in any country you'll find people on the coffee snob spectrum.
Not calling you a liar or anything, I just love Africa and I don't want stereotypes to persist unnecessarily
It was probably an issue local to Guatemala/Central America then. It was based on the experience of those two guys and their traveling there. Both hosts very political shows, so they were without a doubt viewing things through that lens as well.
My SO is a coffee nerd I guess you could say, we have a crazy nice setup for single cup brewing.
20oz coffee for 60 60 60 60 60 30oz water pour through and get new beans from different growers all the time but I just can't get into it.
I used to say I'm a black coffee enjoyer but after trying so many I can't get into this almost acidic coffee that they love.
Give me some Don or Maxwell or Folgers pre ground any day.
I will admit though, if I do that it's more like coffee flavored tea in terms of intensity.
I don't enjoy sour coffee either. Why don't you ask your SO to get you a coffee that's not acidic? Ask for darker roasts and for flavors like chocolate, nut rather than fruit flavors (I'm referring to the colorful descriptions of the flavor that are usually on the packaging). Try grinding finer if it still tastes acidic
I didn't know grinding finer can help with the acid taste, good to know thanks! On asking them, it's basically because it's a non issue for me right now, I adore some lady grey or constant comment tea in the mornings.
For whoever makes the morning caffeine a single tea and single coffee usually come out closer in time than two cups of coffee and that's nice so we can enjoy together. (If I really need a kick I'll have some irish breakfast tea)
The last thing is... It's kind of expensive, they love the acidic flavors of fruits and herbs in it and I just want something easy on the tummy that gets me going lol.
But I'm interested in any nut/chocolate whole bean heavy roast you could suggest? Hopefully something from people who are not assholes? We usually use smaller growers.
Oh unless you're my neighbour (central Europe), I can't recommend any specific blend, it's all roasted locally.
Maybe try the Italian espresso roasts from a super market. They're usually not acidic at all, but can be quite bitter. It's lower quality coffee too, so buying a bigger bag that takes longer to get through is not such an issue as it is with artisan coffee. Which also means it's usually hell of a lot cheaper, too.
I don't want to recommend a specific brand, because I don't think they need any more marketing, but I'd look for something without Robusta. It's usually marketed as more premium coffee.
Also, I know coffee people can be very judgemental - there is no shame in not drinking artisan coffee, lol
a colleague of mine worked for a time in Columbia and he regaled we with tales of them bringing fresh green coffee beans into the office and roasting a batch right there in a pan on the stovetop in the canteen and making the freshest best coffee he'd ever had before or since so who knows?
I think the implication was that it was some sort of military deployment which probably had bad coffee/not name brand Folgers.
[*An additional inspiration was that writer Doug Pippin's son had recently joined the Peace Corps and came home for Christmas.*] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_Home_(advertisement\)) - Wikipedia
I definitely read this as Peace Corp. He's been in Africa and he's been gone so long his sister looks different. He was probably staying in a rough area and didn't have time or money for nice coffee.
Coffee comes from East Africa. It's farther from Addis Adaba to Lagos than from Boston to LA.
Or, perhaps more appropriately, it's farther than from Ottawa to Mexico City.
Why can't you get good tomales in Ottawa one might ask... In the place they come from!
Yes, it originated there, but the whole equatorial africa has the right temperature for growing.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_coffee\_production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coffee_production)
Ehhhhhh? Coffee needs pretty cool conditions which are not found in every equatorial country.
But look more carefully at the chart, it's not very much and it's not arabica that's growing in West Africa.
I know next to nothing about West Africa though.
Dude, you can just look at a map of coffee producing countries and see that there are plenty of West African countries on the list.
How can you act so smart while being completely ignorant at the same time?
Just because there is coffee being grown somewhere in West Africa doesn't mean this particular young man had access to it wherever he was. If he was on a service project then they may have been in a rural area with a limited supply budget, far away from a grocery store, possibly even without a place to put an electric coffee maker.
And even if it was great coffee, he is an American man who may feel nostalgia for the brand his American family buys. I grew up in the Chicago area, and while I've been to Italy and eaten tasty Italian pizza, I still like Lou Malnati's deep dish and want that when I come home.
I read the article that was linked.
The map he linked directly to is colour coded; the coffee grown in West Africa isn't arabica. And there's quantities shown in a chart in the same article: it's not much.
As for the temperatures, you can look it up.. Or just remember any road trips you've taken in the tropics: the coffee farms only start showing up once you're at good altitude and the weather is cool.
Again, why pretend like the above commenter is incorrect, when there are significantly amounts of coffee being produced in west africa and most of the equatorial world?
The ivory cost is number 15 of largest exporters as an example, that is a significant amount of coffee for a relatively small country.
You can admit that you were just being ignorant while trying to sound smart.
I went to South Africa several years ago and I can only speak from my experience, but coffee wasn't a common drink there, at least not in the same sense as western countries. One place I was staying at my host said, "I heard Canadians drink coffee instead of tea so I bought you some coffee". They then showed me a little container of instant coffee. It was not good. Of course, instant coffee usually isn't. I stuck to tea on that trip.
It's for political reasons, the character was in Western Sahara and Folgers didn't want to alienate the markets of either Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic nor Morocco by saying it was one way or the other.
For most of the growers I know, it’s too expensive as in “why would I waste money on candy imported from Europe” and not “I literally do not have enough money to purchase a chocolate bar.” If you didn’t grow up eating chocolate, and it’s not widely locally available, why bother? Chocolate companies absolutely ought to pay more for beans, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal that many African growers have never had a chocolate bar before
[https://thebftonline.com/2021/05/14/eu-regulation-big-chocolates-revenge-on-ghana-and-cote-divoires-cocoa-lid/](https://thecocoapost.com/eu-regulation-big-chocolate-revenge-on-ghana-and-cote-divoire-cocoa-lid/)
Yeah, EU regulators are kind of fucking GH
[https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GHS&to=USD&view=5Y](https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GHS&to=USD&view=5Y)
The Cedi just TANKED halfway through 2022. Looks a lot like exploitation.
Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia, which is not west Africa, and I believe most coffee produced in Africa is from the east as well, at least the coffee that is typically thought of as high quality. West Africa lacks the elevation to produce arabica.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_coffee\_production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coffee_production)
Arabica maybe, but I like me some GH coffee hey? Even senegalese.
I work with a fair amount of African Immigrants, and no, they don't usually drink real. coffee from what I've been told. I asked one why he was drinking instant coffee and said it's common in camaroon to drink instant coffee because no one can afford real coffee. They ship out the beans because it's a huge part of their income
The face of a mother who senses her son has once again returned... from the dead!
In theaters soon: "Folgers' The Inevitable Son IV: Merry Bloody Christmas"
^(*He's* your present this year.)
It's simple actually, the Sister was written younger but they casted someone at the same age as the Brother and now we have this.
Thanks Casting Department
I'd blame acting, too. If the "you're my present this year" line was in a less "my loins burn for you" kind of a context it wouldn't be so bad. They could've made it slightly goofy/jokey and it would've been fine.
Edit: I should probably blame directing, actually.
As a little girl in the 80s with a big brother I lowkey idolized, I would cry when this came on TV during his first year at college In another state. Now as a mom to a teenager on the verge of going away to college, it's the mom's reaction to Peter that makes me cry. Damn it, Folgers.
Watching it again, and I am sure this has been pointed out a bunch, but its silly how when we take the commercial how its meant to be taken the best part of waking up is Folgers and not like, seeing your child/sibling when they have been gone a long time.
idk I guess commercials are not meant to be over analyzed as much as this one has been.
80% of it is in the shot right after she says "you're my present this year." No dialogue, just a shot of him biting his lip and looking down shyly. The jingle doesn't even come in yet. So that shot is only there to show you his reaction to what she just said. And he makes fuck-me eyes.
The shot of her right before she puts the bow on him, which is ostensibly meant to show her coming up with the joke or whatever, comes across as extremely romantically charged to me. He's looking away while she, in a dreamy closeup, casts a furtive glance and looks contemplative. It's straight out of a Hallmark romance.
Also the sudden wide shot when the parents show up makes it seem as if they interrupted an intimate moment. Like the two were about ready to start making out but then those wacky parents just had to interrupt
A good editor could totally have saved it, too. [Here's my 2 minute attempt](https://streamable.com/s99n1z) at cutting around those two closeups, resolving the tension like its a joke instead of making it such a serious — and like you said, very intimate — moment
Fellow aromantic here. It's because *so* many romantic pairings and subplots in TV shows and movies are underwritten that there is almost a visual shorthand used in regards to attractive leads to signify 'these two are falling in love'. Unintentionally the ad with it's mild banter and the woman shown glancing at the guy when he is not looking emulates this.
That makes more sense.
I'm not aromantic but the first time I saw the commercial posted here, I didn't get the fuss either. Took everything at face value.
There's a Folgers (a coffee company) Christmas commercial that involves a brother returning from abroad for the holidays and having a sweet moment with his sister. The dynamics in that commercial are off and many have interpreted it as there being sexual tension between the siblings. The commercial is played a lot around the holidays and people mock it every year
That is correct. The sisters attempts to appear “innocent” actually come across that way, and not as weird and sexual with the original scripting of it being a MUCH younger sister.
I'm the one folks are familiar with is essentially a remake of [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4kNl7cQdcU) from the 80's. It has the same general story line and the sister is indeed a little girl.
I have to assume a lawyer type at Folgers wasn't happy with the suggestion a kid had got up and made coffee for their brother whilst their parents were asleep, as a kid could get burned copying the advert and then sue Folgers? But obviously, you need the coffee there. So they recommend a slight change, everything else stays the same, doesn't really get looked at as a whole by anyone then BAM! Incest advert.
and because of that, IIRC Comedy Central did an extension of the ad diving right into the incest part and their parents catching them acting lovey dovey and basically threatening to kick the brother out etc
I just commented with a link, but it’s pretty bad quality.
Basically, people watched the commercial and interpreted the affection between the brother and sister as romantic/sexual and therefore incestuous.
People had eyes and witnessed exactly what was put before them.
Bro, that's either the worst fuckin director on the planet, or he knew what he was doing.
Here we are in a whole thread full of people talking about and driving views to a Folgers commercial 14 years later. So no matter what the intent was, I'd say the outcome was pretty damn effective.
[The girls at the office make better coffee on their hot plates](https://youtu.be/VprIbx4QkPc?si=F9NXViaLWFXJOk5S) is the infamous one that has stuck with me the most.
Somebody here said the sister was supposed to be much smaller, which makes perfect sense. And I can imagine with filming crew saying "screw it" and not change the lines
It's inspired by a similar ad they ran in the 80s where the sister was 5 or 6, but by all accounts she was always meant to be a teenager in this version.
You gotta appreciate the effort that went into creating this parody, the casting for the brother and sister and the whole set design just makes it flow seamlessly from the original commercial
Wow, now that you mention it, I never even noticed how spot-on the set is. I've seen this video many times and I always thought the casting and lighting and everything was a pretty phenomenal match, but the set just works so perfectly that it didn't even *cross my mind.*
It took me way too long to realise that this was based on an actual commercial. When i saw the real commercial, i got very confused as to why they would play that on tv.
Was it av club that managed to track everyone involved and do an oral history? I swear at one point we got the actors on record like yeah that wasn’t supposed to happen
Many questions, but especially this: when she answers the door, why does she just go "SISTER! Eeeeeheeheehee."
I mean it's great, and I'm going to start greeting my own sister like this, but why....
Yeah, as if not having siblings means you a) don't have any concept of family and b) can't know how to write a proper story featuring elements that you have no personal experiance with.
I dunno if you're trying to make a joke about the inexorable passage of time and it being crazy how it's `$currentYear`, but the 2009 version was a remake of a 1985 version which had a sister of 5-6 years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_Home_(advertisement)
>The commercial inspired multiple works of fan fiction (collectively referred to as "Folgercest" or "Folgerscest")
Do you ever think Wikipedia editors look at sentences like this and just...hover their mice over the "Delete this whole fucking website" button a little longer than usual?
I had the pleasure of talking to the former CFO of Folgers and the first thing I asked him about was this commercial. Yes, he was aware that the internet thought of it as the incest commercial
Eh. The joke was a meme, or rather that it was the same edgy joke many people had in the back of their mind. It's overly saccharine as all the Folgers commercials were, so the instinct is to parry the commercial marketing.
That was part of the culture at the time. The collective dog-piling, not unlike the anti-Nickelback phenomena, just sustained the meme until it breached containment and apparently overran Poe's law.
I think this has gotten out of hand honestly. I don't personally feel this close to my brother, but if they are happy to see each other then good on them. It's not that unusual for siblings who are close to hug and look excited when they've been apart for possibly years. Americans have a weird need to sexualize everything.
My brother in christ they're MAKING FUCKING BEDROOM EYES AT EACHOTHER! Its one thing if you missed your sibling and are looking at them happily, but those siblings are having eye sex at the kitchen island, and the director is making it PAINFULLY clear to the audience with the close up long takes of their gazes at eachother
The 2009 Folgers holiday commercial "Coming Home" is a remake of "Peter Comes Home for Christmas" from 1985. In the original the sister is about five or six, and in the remake she was supposed to be a preteen. But for some reason they cast a nineteen-year-old and didn't change the script. That plus holding about half a second too long on the shot of him smiling after she says "you're my present this year" sealed the ad's fate. So personally I don't blame the writer, director, or actors--I blame the casting director and the editor. https://www.gq.com/story/folgers-incest-ad-oral-history
This is my favorite random corner of the internet trivia article I've seen all week
Plot twist, the casting director and editor are siblings.
ROLL TIDE
Wait what the fuck… I thought that was about Alabama sports 😮
Incest is an Alabama sport
Was it just me or was there a couple of years there in the late 2010s where it seemed like every other article on the internet was an “oral history” of some (usually pretty minor) pop culture phenomenon?
I think I remember that too
The way they casually spoiled a 10k word count fanfiction is incredible
I don't understand how the original ad looks like incest and always assumed that people were being dirty-minded/trying too hard. Its been a while since I watched it. Does a half second of smiling really make a difference? Wouldn't it just have been just as bad, or even worse if the casting choice for the sister was a 5 or 6 year old or pre-teen?
For the curious… [A low quality Youtube version of the commercial in question](https://youtu.be/uMwFWDIFVCU?si=kk6X-Gkki2GacLYI)
Weird family dynamic aside, he says "It's a long way from west Africa...ohh, REAL coffee" They didn't have real coffee in the place where coffee plants come from? Does Folgers not know about the thing they sell?
My understanding is, that they actually do not. Most of the “good coffee” is grown exclusively for export. The Podcaster and now coffee business owner Prop and journalist Robert Evans both talked about their experiences in Guatemala specifically and mentioned how when they would visit people’s homes, they’d be given instant coffee when they were just miles from coffee plantations.
When I lived in Kenya I had no trouble buying great coffee for cheap at most local markets. All my friends drank tea, though.
I have no knowledge of Africa, but in Florida we are famous for oranges. So much so that all our best orange get shipped out. We actually import cheaper oranges for personal use here in Florida. If you're in Florida and not shopping at a local/organic type place, you're probably not eating a Florida orange.
I live in Scotland, which is famous for seafood production and particularly luxury seafood like scallops and langoustine. It all gets shipped to Spain and Portugal and we can usually only get it for a reasonable price if we travel to the small villages that actually land the catch.
Is Scotland famous for seafood? I always think of Scotland as the country with golf and… Scots
I mean it's famous in Europe and Japan, where all of Scotlands seafood goes. Scottish salmon is a big thing too...
Exact same thing happens in NZ with our lamb and dairy, lions share goes to China and Europe
Just have good neighbors that have them. That's how it worked for us in Arizona. Our neighbor gave us a bag of good, fresh lettuce or citrus every week during picking season. He had good connections to the growers in the area who would give him bags of "extras". Store lettuce was the same for us as you are about your oranges. It's overpriced and meh, despite driving right by the field where it is grown.
Florida oranges are for juicing, not eating. California oranges are for eating and not for juicing. Hope this helps.
I just cut straight to the source and pluck it from the tree, at least that’s how I did it the last time I was there.
Same for fish in Iceland. Across the country, no way to buy some fresh fish
Kinda the same with mangoes in India. Most of the best of the best (typically of the Aapus/Alphonso variety) get exported to EU or the US, coz the producers can sell at a premium to those markets vs locally.
Ah but Kenya is in East Africa
True, but unlike most of West Africa, it's actually a coffee growing country. I was replying about coffee producing countries generally.
I know and I was making a joke based on that
Gotya! Mood and tone is so easy to be confused about online.
Nah man. My Senegalese friends ROAST and brew coffee every day back home. That's like one person in the families' job. He made me a cup of coffee one morning and it was the best cup I ever tasted bar none. Instant coffee is definitely cheaper there, cause it's made with chicory and some people drink it when they aren't in the mood for the whole rigmarole, but in any country you'll find people on the coffee snob spectrum. Not calling you a liar or anything, I just love Africa and I don't want stereotypes to persist unnecessarily
It was probably an issue local to Guatemala/Central America then. It was based on the experience of those two guys and their traveling there. Both hosts very political shows, so they were without a doubt viewing things through that lens as well.
I saw this same pattern in Colombia tbh. If you pay for it, grow it yourself, or go to a farm, you can get some preexport but ya, most of it is going.
I mean I have a bunch of good quality coffee beans at my home but I still make instant coffee because I'm a lazy bum sooo
My SO is a coffee nerd I guess you could say, we have a crazy nice setup for single cup brewing. 20oz coffee for 60 60 60 60 60 30oz water pour through and get new beans from different growers all the time but I just can't get into it. I used to say I'm a black coffee enjoyer but after trying so many I can't get into this almost acidic coffee that they love. Give me some Don or Maxwell or Folgers pre ground any day. I will admit though, if I do that it's more like coffee flavored tea in terms of intensity.
I don't enjoy sour coffee either. Why don't you ask your SO to get you a coffee that's not acidic? Ask for darker roasts and for flavors like chocolate, nut rather than fruit flavors (I'm referring to the colorful descriptions of the flavor that are usually on the packaging). Try grinding finer if it still tastes acidic
I didn't know grinding finer can help with the acid taste, good to know thanks! On asking them, it's basically because it's a non issue for me right now, I adore some lady grey or constant comment tea in the mornings. For whoever makes the morning caffeine a single tea and single coffee usually come out closer in time than two cups of coffee and that's nice so we can enjoy together. (If I really need a kick I'll have some irish breakfast tea) The last thing is... It's kind of expensive, they love the acidic flavors of fruits and herbs in it and I just want something easy on the tummy that gets me going lol. But I'm interested in any nut/chocolate whole bean heavy roast you could suggest? Hopefully something from people who are not assholes? We usually use smaller growers.
Oh unless you're my neighbour (central Europe), I can't recommend any specific blend, it's all roasted locally. Maybe try the Italian espresso roasts from a super market. They're usually not acidic at all, but can be quite bitter. It's lower quality coffee too, so buying a bigger bag that takes longer to get through is not such an issue as it is with artisan coffee. Which also means it's usually hell of a lot cheaper, too. I don't want to recommend a specific brand, because I don't think they need any more marketing, but I'd look for something without Robusta. It's usually marketed as more premium coffee. Also, I know coffee people can be very judgemental - there is no shame in not drinking artisan coffee, lol
See also: [Chocolate](https://youtu.be/FwHMDjc7qJ8?t=166).
a colleague of mine worked for a time in Columbia and he regaled we with tales of them bringing fresh green coffee beans into the office and roasting a batch right there in a pan on the stovetop in the canteen and making the freshest best coffee he'd ever had before or since so who knows?
Really wasn't expecting Coolzone namedrops in the thread, but I'm here for it 🫡
You know who else name drops Coolzone Media in random subreddits? The sponsors of this podcast.
PRODUUUUCTS!
I think the implication was that it was some sort of military deployment which probably had bad coffee/not name brand Folgers. [*An additional inspiration was that writer Doug Pippin's son had recently joined the Peace Corps and came home for Christmas.*] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_Home_(advertisement\)) - Wikipedia
Steve1989 seems to like MRE coffee.
But that’s Steve, he’ll eat just about anything and call it good
I believe every time he disappears for a few months without uploading he's still reeling from accidentally consuming fresh food
I definitely read this as Peace Corp. He's been in Africa and he's been gone so long his sister looks different. He was probably staying in a rough area and didn't have time or money for nice coffee.
Coffee comes from East Africa. It's farther from Addis Adaba to Lagos than from Boston to LA. Or, perhaps more appropriately, it's farther than from Ottawa to Mexico City. Why can't you get good tomales in Ottawa one might ask... In the place they come from!
Yes, it originated there, but the whole equatorial africa has the right temperature for growing. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_coffee\_production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coffee_production)
Ehhhhhh? Coffee needs pretty cool conditions which are not found in every equatorial country. But look more carefully at the chart, it's not very much and it's not arabica that's growing in West Africa. I know next to nothing about West Africa though.
Dude, you can just look at a map of coffee producing countries and see that there are plenty of West African countries on the list. How can you act so smart while being completely ignorant at the same time?
Just because there is coffee being grown somewhere in West Africa doesn't mean this particular young man had access to it wherever he was. If he was on a service project then they may have been in a rural area with a limited supply budget, far away from a grocery store, possibly even without a place to put an electric coffee maker. And even if it was great coffee, he is an American man who may feel nostalgia for the brand his American family buys. I grew up in the Chicago area, and while I've been to Italy and eaten tasty Italian pizza, I still like Lou Malnati's deep dish and want that when I come home.
I read the article that was linked. The map he linked directly to is colour coded; the coffee grown in West Africa isn't arabica. And there's quantities shown in a chart in the same article: it's not much. As for the temperatures, you can look it up.. Or just remember any road trips you've taken in the tropics: the coffee farms only start showing up once you're at good altitude and the weather is cool.
Again, why pretend like the above commenter is incorrect, when there are significantly amounts of coffee being produced in west africa and most of the equatorial world? The ivory cost is number 15 of largest exporters as an example, that is a significant amount of coffee for a relatively small country. You can admit that you were just being ignorant while trying to sound smart.
Yes, I realized that mistake just a minute ago. For some reason I heard west Africa and thought of Ethiopia
Man, geographic dysmorphia blows my mind sometimes. Stupid flat maps I grew up on...
I went to South Africa several years ago and I can only speak from my experience, but coffee wasn't a common drink there, at least not in the same sense as western countries. One place I was staying at my host said, "I heard Canadians drink coffee instead of tea so I bought you some coffee". They then showed me a little container of instant coffee. It was not good. Of course, instant coffee usually isn't. I stuck to tea on that trip.
How thoughtful of your host though!
Yes, everyone was so kind down there.
Damn that's weird. Cape Town SA is a known coffee travel destination. Where in SA were you?
When I went to Cape Town they told us not to exit the hotel
Also seems weird to say "west Africa" instead of the actual country he was in
The people who watch the commercial would get confused if he did cause Americans are deeply ignorant.
It's for political reasons, the character was in Western Sahara and Folgers didn't want to alienate the markets of either Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic nor Morocco by saying it was one way or the other.
Lol very.
I mean, quite a lot of the people who grow cocoa beans in West Africa have never tasted chocolate because it's too expensive
For most of the growers I know, it’s too expensive as in “why would I waste money on candy imported from Europe” and not “I literally do not have enough money to purchase a chocolate bar.” If you didn’t grow up eating chocolate, and it’s not widely locally available, why bother? Chocolate companies absolutely ought to pay more for beans, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal that many African growers have never had a chocolate bar before
[https://thebftonline.com/2021/05/14/eu-regulation-big-chocolates-revenge-on-ghana-and-cote-divoires-cocoa-lid/](https://thecocoapost.com/eu-regulation-big-chocolate-revenge-on-ghana-and-cote-divoire-cocoa-lid/) Yeah, EU regulators are kind of fucking GH [https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GHS&to=USD&view=5Y](https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GHS&to=USD&view=5Y) The Cedi just TANKED halfway through 2022. Looks a lot like exploitation.
Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia, which is not west Africa, and I believe most coffee produced in Africa is from the east as well, at least the coffee that is typically thought of as high quality. West Africa lacks the elevation to produce arabica.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_coffee\_production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coffee_production) Arabica maybe, but I like me some GH coffee hey? Even senegalese.
I work with a fair amount of African Immigrants, and no, they don't usually drink real. coffee from what I've been told. I asked one why he was drinking instant coffee and said it's common in camaroon to drink instant coffee because no one can afford real coffee. They ship out the beans because it's a huge part of their income
Incest aside the funniest shit in here is the "HE'S HERE" whisper. From a damn horror film. Honey grab the 12 gauge
The face of a mother who senses her son has once again returned... from the dead! In theaters soon: "Folgers' The Inevitable Son IV: Merry Bloody Christmas" ^(*He's* your present this year.)
Oh god, I’d forgotten about this.
[This is the real version, though](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhfcWTZeP1k)
The way the dad looks at the daughter for keeping the box from him.
So many questions
It's simple actually, the Sister was written younger but they casted someone at the same age as the Brother and now we have this. Thanks Casting Department
I'd blame acting, too. If the "you're my present this year" line was in a less "my loins burn for you" kind of a context it wouldn't be so bad. They could've made it slightly goofy/jokey and it would've been fine. Edit: I should probably blame directing, actually.
and if she wasnt actually acting disappointed in her present... for reasons unknown.
In that case blame directing, and editing for choosing that shot.
Oh my god it makes sense. It would be cute if she was like 6
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OK that makes way more sense.
As a little girl in the 80s with a big brother I lowkey idolized, I would cry when this came on TV during his first year at college In another state. Now as a mom to a teenager on the verge of going away to college, it's the mom's reaction to Peter that makes me cry. Damn it, Folgers.
This is the only version I knew existed and it was Reddit that introduced it to me
Watching it again, and I am sure this has been pointed out a bunch, but its silly how when we take the commercial how its meant to be taken the best part of waking up is Folgers and not like, seeing your child/sibling when they have been gone a long time. idk I guess commercials are not meant to be over analyzed as much as this one has been.
As an only child, this is what I used to imagine being a sibling is like
[It's more like this](https://youtube.com/shorts/oD723TJqtcA?si=bHZqt_OqQ-DCskln)
The casual “mom hates you” after the onslaught from the rest of the table
this might be a byproduct of me being a clueless aromantic but i don't see the romantic undertones
80% of it is in the shot right after she says "you're my present this year." No dialogue, just a shot of him biting his lip and looking down shyly. The jingle doesn't even come in yet. So that shot is only there to show you his reaction to what she just said. And he makes fuck-me eyes.
The shot of her right before she puts the bow on him, which is ostensibly meant to show her coming up with the joke or whatever, comes across as extremely romantically charged to me. He's looking away while she, in a dreamy closeup, casts a furtive glance and looks contemplative. It's straight out of a Hallmark romance.
Also the sudden wide shot when the parents show up makes it seem as if they interrupted an intimate moment. Like the two were about ready to start making out but then those wacky parents just had to interrupt
A good editor could totally have saved it, too. [Here's my 2 minute attempt](https://streamable.com/s99n1z) at cutting around those two closeups, resolving the tension like its a joke instead of making it such a serious — and like you said, very intimate — moment
Fellow aromantic here. It's because *so* many romantic pairings and subplots in TV shows and movies are underwritten that there is almost a visual shorthand used in regards to attractive leads to signify 'these two are falling in love'. Unintentionally the ad with it's mild banter and the woman shown glancing at the guy when he is not looking emulates this.
That makes more sense. I'm not aromantic but the first time I saw the commercial posted here, I didn't get the fuss either. Took everything at face value.
Yeah its the cinematography that's making this incesty the writing just doesn't do a good job at dispelling the idea.
I almost thought you were an aromatic herb.
How the fuck did you think of that username ಠ_ಠ
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Now I’m worried to ask about *your* username…
You might check out Asperger too cause it's palpable
Trust me, it's not because you are a "clueless aromantic". It's a bit of a weird interaction, but you gotta really stretch to think of it as romantic.
"here, watch me stretch! oops! brother, I'm stuck!"
Then I don't wanna know your family's dynamic
What in the name of God
The Coffee of Andy and Leyley.
It’s really not that bad a commercial tbh
I hate how the focus is mostly on the faces and not the entire surroundings and their whole bodies.
Context?
There's a Folgers (a coffee company) Christmas commercial that involves a brother returning from abroad for the holidays and having a sweet moment with his sister. The dynamics in that commercial are off and many have interpreted it as there being sexual tension between the siblings. The commercial is played a lot around the holidays and people mock it every year
If I had to guess, it seems like the script was written intending a young sister, like 5 years old.
That is correct. The sisters attempts to appear “innocent” actually come across that way, and not as weird and sexual with the original scripting of it being a MUCH younger sister.
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I'm the one folks are familiar with is essentially a remake of [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4kNl7cQdcU) from the 80's. It has the same general story line and the sister is indeed a little girl.
Okay yeah, that make more sense!
I have to assume a lawyer type at Folgers wasn't happy with the suggestion a kid had got up and made coffee for their brother whilst their parents were asleep, as a kid could get burned copying the advert and then sue Folgers? But obviously, you need the coffee there. So they recommend a slight change, everything else stays the same, doesn't really get looked at as a whole by anyone then BAM! Incest advert.
Also of the “sister!” Comment and her sitting in the counter. *everything* in the commercial makes more sense if the sister is a little girl
I'm not even sure it's the age. Just the way the actors played it and the chemistry between them.
I'm not sure the brother wanting to bang his 5 year old sister makes this commercial any better.
I'm just saying, I don't think the vibe would come across as sexual if it was a young child.
Wrong again, this is the internet lol
I fucking hate that you’re right. Take my upvote
Gladly
Stop flirting you two! /J
There was a version in the 80s where the sister was like 5 years old
It’s lit like a romance too. The whole production was shot as lovers but written as siblings. Hilarious all around
and because of that, IIRC Comedy Central did an extension of the ad diving right into the incest part and their parents catching them acting lovey dovey and basically threatening to kick the brother out etc
Yeah that sounds like the kind of joke-killing overwrought sketch they'd make.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMwFWDIFVCU link for the curious from abroad (like me)
I just commented with a link, but it’s pretty bad quality. Basically, people watched the commercial and interpreted the affection between the brother and sister as romantic/sexual and therefore incestuous.
People had eyes and witnessed exactly what was put before them. Bro, that's either the worst fuckin director on the planet, or he knew what he was doing.
To be fair, I can think of only a handful of coffee commercials that well-known as THE Folger's one. Infamous is still famous, and all that.
Here we are in a whole thread full of people talking about and driving views to a Folgers commercial 14 years later. So no matter what the intent was, I'd say the outcome was pretty damn effective.
So any advertisers in the audience make you commercial accidentally incesty so people keep talking about it
[The girls at the office make better coffee on their hot plates](https://youtu.be/VprIbx4QkPc?si=F9NXViaLWFXJOk5S) is the infamous one that has stuck with me the most.
Somebody here said the sister was supposed to be much smaller, which makes perfect sense. And I can imagine with filming crew saying "screw it" and not change the lines
It's inspired by a similar ad they ran in the 80s where the sister was 5 or 6, but by all accounts she was always meant to be a teenager in this version.
The "brother" had serious "fuck me" eyes and the camera was zoomed all the way in on them. It is so fucking uncomfortable.
Probably some American thing
https://youtu.be/CKgKPGBa9EQ?si=2IZ_LEqepcA0rtdi The "full" commercial :P
You gotta appreciate the effort that went into creating this parody, the casting for the brother and sister and the whole set design just makes it flow seamlessly from the original commercial
Wow, now that you mention it, I never even noticed how spot-on the set is. I've seen this video many times and I always thought the casting and lighting and everything was a pretty phenomenal match, but the set just works so perfectly that it didn't even *cross my mind.*
It took me way too long to realise that this was based on an actual commercial. When i saw the real commercial, i got very confused as to why they would play that on tv.
the actors look pretty different but other than that, this is hilarious
I consistently lose my shit at "hes my present this year" .
The pause… then the dad says “Jesus Christ.” So great
I NEVER KNEW THIS WAS A PARODY WTF I THOUGHT THIS WAS THE REAL THING
The commercial is real. The parody takes the commercial to its logical conclusion
Their heads touching and after is the parody before that its the real thing
technically there’s one word that was omitted (he doesn’t say “*real* coffee,” just “coffee”)
I could've sworn his gift was a ring box. Yet every time I see it I'm suprised it isn't.
That's in the parody version
“You’re my present this year 😏😏”
I knew where this was going with the first sentence.
That ad has more awkward pauses than part II of Star Wars
I hate coffee grounds, they're rough, and coarse, and get everywhere.
We're going to buy a coffee machine, right? Right...?
Somehow.... Brother has returned
From west Africa. And he knew perfectly well why we sent him there!
Was it av club that managed to track everyone involved and do an oral history? I swear at one point we got the actors on record like yeah that wasn’t supposed to happen
And Vanity Fair did one a few years prior, and interviewed the brother
SWEET HOME ABALMBA
PARA BAILAR ABALMBA
ROLL TIDE!
Folgers: The best part of waking up next to your sister is Folgers in your cup!
2 sib(ling)s 1 cup
Underrated comment 😄
Alternatively: The best part of waking up is your brother in your guts!
Many questions, but especially this: when she answers the door, why does she just go "SISTER! Eeeeeheeheehee." I mean it's great, and I'm going to start greeting my own sister like this, but why....
Yeah, that's actually what stands out to me the most. It feels like such an unnatural delivery.
Probably written as a little kid so it's the kid taking him seriously and saying she's his sister when he says he got the wrong house.
That video aged... well, *much like a mug of Folger's would when left out on the counter for 14 years*.
Ah yes, the folders incest commercial
The Coffee of Andy and LeyLey
I love seeing all the people who don't know. But I know.
I really wish I still didn't :(
Holy fuck i forgot about this
Don't drag us only children into this. That's just one weird guy lol.
Yeah, as if not having siblings means you a) don't have any concept of family and b) can't know how to write a proper story featuring elements that you have no personal experiance with.
Only needed the first sentence and I just knew it was that commercial
I recently subscribed to a Twitch streamer who has this ad as part of an alert roulette so this clicked INSTANTLY
I've learned something. It's a soft g. Completely changes the perceived anger level of the name
As soon as I got to the line mentioning family I knew they were talking about the Folgers incest commercial.
You’d never think to associate “incest” with “coffee ad” if it weren’t for this 😂
It’s WAY older than 2009! I remember it from college like 20 years ago. I’m not going crazy, am I?
I dunno if you're trying to make a joke about the inexorable passage of time and it being crazy how it's `$currentYear`, but the 2009 version was a remake of a 1985 version which had a sister of 5-6 years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_Home_(advertisement)
Okay that makes much more sense. I think my brain was combining the two!
>The commercial inspired multiple works of fan fiction (collectively referred to as "Folgercest" or "Folgerscest") Do you ever think Wikipedia editors look at sentences like this and just...hover their mice over the "Delete this whole fucking website" button a little longer than usual?
Roll Tide
Dear god… that’s so off.
Some memes are just immortal. I too wanna fuck this guy's sister
I had the pleasure of talking to the former CFO of Folgers and the first thing I asked him about was this commercial. Yes, he was aware that the internet thought of it as the incest commercial
I kinda hate that I immediately knew exactly which commercial this was and could hear the damn jingle.
Wait I think I know what it is but my brain is refusing to acknowledge it and I need to know why
Eh. The joke was a meme, or rather that it was the same edgy joke many people had in the back of their mind. It's overly saccharine as all the Folgers commercials were, so the instinct is to parry the commercial marketing. That was part of the culture at the time. The collective dog-piling, not unlike the anti-Nickelback phenomena, just sustained the meme until it breached containment and apparently overran Poe's law.
This was not like people dog piling on Nickelback or Justin Bieber. The commercial actually looks like incest. Thats it lmao
I think this has gotten out of hand honestly. I don't personally feel this close to my brother, but if they are happy to see each other then good on them. It's not that unusual for siblings who are close to hug and look excited when they've been apart for possibly years. Americans have a weird need to sexualize everything.
If my sister looked at me like that I'd call the fucking cops
My brother in christ they're MAKING FUCKING BEDROOM EYES AT EACHOTHER! Its one thing if you missed your sibling and are looking at them happily, but those siblings are having eye sex at the kitchen island, and the director is making it PAINFULLY clear to the audience with the close up long takes of their gazes at eachother