folgers commercial

Late last week, I talked about how, even as a guy, I know that ads for women's hygiene products are silly. Now, I'm going to talk about an advertiser that hasn't been very fair to the fairer sex for decades: Folgers.

We've written about the supermarket coffee brand's saccharine-sweet advertising before. But one thing we haven't explored with their "playing to middle America" series of ads is how poorly women come off in most of them.

Take this ad that debuted late in 2009 and has been airing incessantly ever since:



At first, it looks like a sweet and kind of old-fashioned spot, with a well-meaning if slightly over-protective dad telling his little girl that her new fiance went to him for his blessing to take her hand in marriage. But one line in the ad drives me batty: After the dad says to his daughter that she was out late the night before, she holds out the ring and says "well, you're not gonna have to worry about that anymore."

We all remember and love the Folgers TV commercial from the early 80's that featured Peter coming home from college (or maybe prison or being stranded on an island, it's never really explained). I don't know why Folgers doesn't just run this ad every year people love it so much, but they don't. In fact, this morning I saw a new Folgers Christmas commercial that is very similar to the Peter ad: guy gets dropped off at his home, his sister is up first, and then the parents smell the coffee and get out of bed and come down to greet him. It's just not the same though.

Here's the old ad (and here's an interview with Greg Wrangler, who played Peter). Can't find the new one online yet but I'll post it when I can.