Name: “You’re My Present This Year”: An Oral History of the Folgers Incest Ad
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“You’re My Present This Year”: An Oral History of the Folgers Incest Ad

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In 2009, Folgers released a commercial meant to be a modern reimagining of their classic ad "." Little did they know, it would become a classic of its own—for a very different reason.“Coming Home” opens with a taxi dropping a young man off outside a snow-covered house bedecked in Christmas decorations early one morning. A young woman excitedly opens the door and establishes that she’s his sister by pointing at herself and saying “sister!” He’s weary, having just returned from volunteering in “West Africa,” and the two share a cup of freshly-brewed Folgers coffee while their parents are still asleep. (In some versions he even says "ah, real coffee," as if he didn't just come from where some of the best coffee in the world is produced.) He hands her a small present, but instead of opening it, she peels off the red bow and sticks it on his shirt. “What are you doing?” he asks. “You’re my present this year,” she responds. The camera zooms in on her shy glance, then cuts to his furtive, flirty smile. Those three seconds sealed its fate forever.When I first saw the ad, I thought: wait, are they fucking? (Then, every time after that: okay, they’re definitely fucking.) As I would come to learn, I was hardly alone. The reaction to the ad was an example of the internet at its most fun—the phenomenon of collectively realizing that the specific thing that you believed you’ve singularly noticed is actually a widely-held opinion. Memes, articles, and parody videos abounded. It even inspired a genre of vividly-rendered fan fiction known as “Folgerscest.”Though the commercial officially stopped airing after the 2012 holiday season, it lives on forever in our hearts and in our internet-addled brains. So for the ad’s 10th anniversary, GQ spoke to the people involved in creating it and those who propelled it forwards online to bring you the definitive Folgers Incest Ad oral history. Because you’re all our present this year.Saatchi &amp; Saatchi was the ad agency working on the Folgers account at the time. The late Doug Pippin wrote it, Jerry Boyle produced it, and the two brought on Ray Dillman to direct.Jerry Boyle (SVP and executive producer at Saatchi &amp; Saatchi): Doug Pippin came up with the idea early on that the client loved, which was an older brother coming home from West Africa who was working in the Peace Corps and whose sister was a certain age that she grew up quite a bit while he was away, so he barely recognized her in a playful manner. We had worked with Ray Dillman before, who we adored. He’s very, very good at casting and filming it in a way that’s very observational and believable and emotional. (director): I really connected with the writer, Doug Pippin. When Jerry sent me an email where he informed me that Doug had passed away, I was just so hurt by it. He was one of those kinds of outwardly curmudgeonly guys, but really, at his heart, a very sweet guy. We struck up this relationship, with him talking about his son and me talking about my son. It was kind of his personal story. His son had been in the Peace Corps and had done work out of the country and had come home for Christmas. And that was the inspiration for the story.Jerry Boyle: You kind of get sucked into the story, which is nice. It was all very, very innocent. Obviously what’s happened since then has been a real ... something that nobody imagined happening. And our client is so wholesome. It was, we thought, emotional.What people read into it—once that took off—was just insane.The ad was cast and filmed in Santa Monica, California in the summer of 2009. , the actor best known for playing , was new to Los Angeles and worked the camera for the auditions and callbacks.Timothy Simons (cameraman for auditions and callbacks): This was a very long time ago and if you asked me if I would end up being interviewed about this commercial that I worked on, 10 years later, I would not have believed you, because it was altogether pretty unremarkable. It’s not something I have a lot of memories about, outside of the fact that ultimately the commercial kind of seems like the brother and sister are going to have sex. That’s why we’re talking, right?Jerry Boyle: You’re looking for a brother who you would assume is the right age that could’ve gone off to the Peace Corps and then come home. When casting for the sister she needed to be just becoming a teenager so she’s changed quite a bit since the time he’s been away at the Peace Corps. He comes home and his sister has gone from a very young girl into a young teenager. And obviously you cast them so they look like they’re brother and sister.Timothy Simons: I suppose, had I thought at the time, “this is going to be a 10-year joke,” I would’ve made some more mental notes. But [during casting] I was just trying to get through the day. I was trying to see 200 people who had all driven to Santa Monica when they didn’t want to drive to Santa Monica to pretend to be reunited with their brother.The role of the brother went to Matthew Alan, who has since gone on to star in the series and 13 Reasons Why. Catherine Combs, who played the sister, declined to be interviewed for this article.Ray Dillman: I got a project years ago for the Professional Golfers Association and there was a set of words you don't like to hear as a director: "Oh yeah, and it's going to be non-union talent." But you do find good people, and Matthew was one of those people. He hadn't done anything and I cast him. He was so good and so genuine and so sweet, just had that sweetness about him that was perfect for the spot. And then when we started to cast the Folgers spot, I requested that he come in.Matthew Alan (actor, played the brother in the ad): I was auditioning for a lot of commercials at the time and I was still pretty green. I had worked with the director before—he was such a lovely guy. To me it was very personal, very special because it was the beginning of my career and one of the first jobs that I had the pleasure of booking.Timothy Simons: They didn’t audition together but I remember both of their performances being the best performances that anybody saw that day. Especially the young woman—she had incredible energy in the room. Just a really lovely person, a really strong actor.Matthew Alan: We met the very first day on set, and she was really lovely to work with. We haven't crossed paths since, so I'd be curious to see where she's at and how she's doing now.Ray Dillman: She, first of all, took it seriously, but just had something that I felt would match Matthew. She had something special and did really good things with whatever adjustment I asked her to do.Matthew Alan: It was a full day, probably a 12-hour day. I remember pulling up to this neighborhood in Santa Monica, five minutes from the beach, and wondering how they're going to make this house look so Christmas-y. And then this big snow machine comes in.Ray Dillman: I took my daughter and her friend in their little school uniforms and stood them there and took a picture of them. Because it's so funny to see, well, number one, to see snow in Santa Monica, but, two, in the middle of August.Matthew Alan: It was a very magical, surreal experience.Despite how the ad was eventually interpreted, everyone involved insists there was no romantic chemistry on set that day.Matthew Alan: It was purely brother and sister at the time. It was pretty surprising when people started talking because this was a brother-sister thing!Ray Dillman: They had fun with each other. I didn't see anything that would've indicated that it could be interpreted any other way.Jerry Boyle: Everything was completely innocent on the set. There was nothing while we were filming it or editing it that anybody ever felt that way.One of the very first people, if not the first person, to write about the incesteous undertones in the ad was Alexa Marinos. “Is it just me,” she asked on her now-defunct blog, , “Or does Peter want to bang his little sister?”Alexa Marinos (corporate communications manager): I’m a marketer by trade so I always pay attention to commercials and ads, particularly holiday ones because I’m always curious to see how brands flex and adapt their marketing for the holiday season. I used to do all my writing in front of the television. So when, I’ll call it, “Peter Comes Home for Christmas 2.0” aired I was sitting in front of my laptop. And I just remember immediately critiquing the spot in my head as a marketer. Particularly the casting, the casting seemed off to me. I was like “why is Peter’s little sister 22 instead of four? And why is Peter, like, vibing on his little sister?”Sure enough, that interpretation took off, leading to and articles pointing out the weirdness at hand. As KnowYourMeme , when writer and consultant Nicole James “nothing gets me in the holiday mood like that incest/Folgers commercial” a few years later, a screengrab of her joke rapidly , garnering over 220,000 notes. By 2012, The Daily Dot a piece titled “How to talk to your family about that Folgers incest commercial”; in 2014, BuzzFeed “In Retrospect, That Commercial From 2009 Is Definitely About Incest”; and in 2015, Uproxx of “10 reasons that incestuous Folger’s commercial is our modern Christmas classic.” That same year, Above Average made an of the ad in which the siblings confirm that they are, in fact, banging. Comedy writer Glenn Boozan was the brains behind the sketch.Glenn Boozan (comedian and writer): There was some vibe to the ad where I was like “is this a dog whistle for something?” Okay, this brother’s coming home from West Africa. Seems to want to fuck his sister. And then they’re trying to sell us ? What’s happening? I remember experiencing it alone and then eventually I realized, talking to other people or watching TV with other people, that it wasn’t just a “me being sick in the head” thing.We were trying to come up with Christmas content, which is a bad phrase but … I think we said “the Folgers commercial” [in the writers’ room] and everyone knew what we were talking about without even saying “the incest commercial.”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 to it, while—as Gawker in 2012—fan fiction site Archive of Our Own has a whole section the “Folgers ‘Home for the Holidays’ commercial.” Along with standard stories imagining drawn-out sexual scenarios between the brother and sister, some writers subbed in other characters in their places, like Cersei and Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones or Kylo Ren and Rey from Star Wars. 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 “” in which—spoiler—the brother dies.Alixtii O'Krul (writer, author of the fanfic story “”): I don't think [the commercial] particularly registered until people began talking about it on my LiveJournal friends list, probably around 2010 or 2011. We were used to using our shipping goggles to look for the barest hint of incestuous subtext, and so the Folgers commercial registered in a big way.Someone had the brilliant idea of asking for Folgerscest stories in Yuletide, and the Folgerscest fandom was born. Yuletide is a fan fiction exchange for small and rare fandoms whose reveals happen on December 25. So at least some people are thinking about Christmas when they sit down to make their Yuletide nominations and requests, and that helps to keep Folgerscest alive.Aza Azdaema (writer, author of the fanfic story ): I really think Folgercest is a peak example of fandom at its best. It's wildly creative, absurd, transformative. It really has relatively little to do with the source material, and everything to do with the meaning we have ascribed to it.Most importantly of all, it's joyful and lighthearted. Folgers is sufficiently satirical that it’s spared the “if you enjoy [insert thing here] you’re terrible, and I’m going to pick fights with you about it” treatment, which is frustratingly common in fandom. Everyone seems to be able to laugh about it, and that is very rare in the age of the internet.Jack Stratton (writer of , author of the fanfic story “”): There is a Hallmark movie sappiness to it where you are sort of expecting bad acting and milquetoast dialog. Then you see these two young attractive actors have an oddly palpable sexual chemistry, even though they are playing siblings. Then the vagueness of "you're my present" at the end. It all just has enough to chew on for people looking for subtext or something to make fun of.Alixtii O'Krul: The commercial has all the right ingredients for 'cesters to glom onto it: two attractive, twenty-something leads, palpable (although presumably unintentional) incestuous subtext, and just the right mixture of sentimentality and “wtf.” Even if read as just a story about platonic siblings, it's still overtly romantic in the older sense of the word: it provides a fantasy of loving and being cherished, of two people who love each other very, very much being reunited after a separation.Jack Stratton: What makes it good for writing is that there are lots of weird questions left unanswered that a writer can use as hooks. The brevity of the piece is helpful because it introduces a lot of imagery and questions and then doesn't answer any of them. It is a perfect jumping-off point.Aza Azdaema: While the commercial is not even a full minute long, it offers several obvious places to easily graft on more content. For example, it’s almost universally agreed that the reason the brother joined the Peace Corps was to get as far away from home as possible, trying to outrun his incestuous feelings. What’s in the box remains an open question—I’ve seen more than one work posit that it’s a ring, and our boy is about to propose. And more works than not include some sort of jab at the idea that Folgers is "real coffee."Jack Stratton: I love coffee. I am really into coffee and Brooklyn coffee culture. So in my story, I tackle the coffee question, because I don't personally like Folgers (or any coffee that isn't freshly roasted and ground right before making it.) My two goals were to play out the subtextual incestuous flirtation and get them drinking better coffee.As the ad gained infamy, the people involved processed it in different ways.Jerry Boyle: I remember the client came to us and we had a conversation about it.Tina Meyer-Hawkes (Vice President of Marketing for Coffee Brands at J.M. Smucker, Folgers’ parent company): As we think back to 2009, the social media landscape wasn't quite what it is today. However, references to “Coming Home” continue to make their way into popular culture. There have been a number of tweets, memes and parody videos over the years. There has also been a lot of long-lasting positive sentiment and adoration for this ad. Our goal in creating “Coming Home” was to develop a heartwarming family homecoming story. We did not anticipate the public would see it any other way. And rather than engaging with misinterpreted conversation about “Coming Home” online, we’re focused on showcasing modern mornings in for the brand.Matthew Alan: It was so early on in my career that when people were teasing about it, first I was like, "No, no, you're missing the point. It's a good commercial." I was very protective of it at the beginning, but I think that had a lot to do with it being my first job. But as time went on, I love the fact that it's this discussion topic that people laugh about. Some of the spoofs and the different edits that I've seen are pretty hilarious.Ray Dillman: I've had a handful of spots I've directed over the years be parodied. It's a razor edge, doing this type of work. I don't know why you would take yourself seriously with that stuff—it's just funny stuff.Jerry Boyle: When you look at it as a father and from an honest perspective and you understand the backstory through the whole thing, it’s all perfectly innocent. And until somebody makes it a point to bring it some place that it was never intended to be then obviously you see it in hindsight. Most anything out there can be misconstrued in a certain way.Timothy Simons: Here’s one thing: I was in a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial when I was in Chicago that was somehow interpreted as—and I don’t know what the best way to say this is—a celebration of men going down on women while they’re menstruating. It was called, like, “.” So I feel like far too in-depth interpretations of commercials that I’ve been involved in have followed me around a little bit.Matthew Alan: To be honest, that is probably still the job that I get recognized for the most. I have so much respect for Folgers because of that commercial.It was one of the most arresting viral photos of the year: a horde of climbers clogged atop Mount Everest. But it only begins to capture the deadly realities of what transpired that day at 29,000 feet.

In 2009, Folgers released a commercial meant to be a modern reimagining of their classic ad "." Little did they know, it would become a classic of its own—for a very different reason.“Coming Home” opens with a taxi dropping a young man off outside a snow-covered house bedecked in Christmas decorations early one morning. A young woman excitedly opens the door and establishes that she’s his sister by pointing at herself and saying “sister!” He’s weary, having just returned from volunteering in “West Africa,” and the two share a cup of freshly-brewed Folgers coffee while their parents are...

“You’re My Present This Year”: An Oral History of the Folgers Incest Ad

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