Folgerscest: The 2009 Folgers Ad

How a Christmas Commercial Became an Internet Phenomenon

It’s October, which is basically Retail Christmas. I also ran out of coffee this morning, so naturally, I’m thinking about the 2009 Folgers holiday commercial and how the internet became convinced the brother and sister characters were definitely in love.

The mind works in mysterious ways.

Folgerscest was not the first time the internet suspected incest subtext in media. It was the same year the Disney show “Life with Derek” (2006–2009) was cancelled because the step-sibling characters had so much chemistry and tension that teenagers were “shipping” them to end up together.

The 2009 Folgers holiday commercial intended to be a heartwarming ad about a brother and sister reuniting at Christmas. It was an update of the original “Peter Comes Home for Christmas” commercial from the 1980s. In the original, the sister was still a child (seven or eight years old by my guess) and the brother was an adult. Very sweet, heartwarming, and not at all weird.