Here’s What Happened To The Brother And Sister From The Notorious Folgers Coffee Ad

Cast your mind back to the late 2000s. Specifically, the festive period. Do you remember seeing an advert for Folgers coffee featuring a certain reunited sister and brother? A pair of siblings whose relationship seemed perfectly lovely? Except, here’s the thing. Maybe it wasn’t lovely. Maybe there was something weird going on beneath the surface.

If you know what we’re talking about, then you’re probably also aware of the hilarious meme culture that sprang up around the commercial. All of a sudden, this supposedly heart-warming piece of wrong became the laughing stock of the internet. For example, when a jokey tweet from writer Nicole James about the ad was posted on Tumblr in 2012, it received more than 200,000 responses.

Pretty soon, Chelsea Handler and Daniel Tosh were parodying the commercial. And periodically, outlets such as The Daily Dot, BuzzFeed, and Uproxx would dredge it back into the light of day with scathing articles. Oh, and YouTube channel Above Average mocked the ad and revealed, once and for all, that the siblings were — ahem — closer than they should have been.

What exactly happened in the ad to cause such a reaction, though? Well, in “Coming Home” — its official name — a young man returns to his family home in a taxi. It’s deep in the Christmas season, snow is all around, and the house is twinkling. When a teenage girl answers the door, he says, “I must have the wrong house.”

The young lady jokingly exclaims “Sister!” and points towards herself, so we realize that the man’s her brother. It’s also clear that he’s been gone a long time. The pair head into the kitchen to drink some Folgers coffee, while he speaks about having been in West Africa. He then produces a wrapped gift from his bag and gives it to her, as she smiles warmly.

Rather than open the gift, though, she takes the bow off and applies it to the front of her brother’s shirt. Confused, he says, “What are you doing?” to which she replies, “You’re my present this year.” The reunited siblings then grin at each other, as the camera lingers for a few seconds. Pure Hallmark Channel schmaltz, right? Wrong.

In 2019 GQ magazine published an oral history of the creation and unintended legacy of the commercial. Producer Jerry Boyle, an executive with advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, revealed that the initial concept came from writer Doug Pippin. Everyone agreed that an older brother returning from the Peace Corps and not recognizing his little sister was a good idea.

In fact, director Ray Dillman revealed that the idea was born out of Pippin’s real-life experiences. “It was kind of his personal story,” he told GQ. “His son had been in the Peace Corps and had done work out of the country and had come home for Christmas.” It’s tempting to wonder how Pippin, who passed away in 2017, felt about the public’s reaction to the commercial.

Pippin’s colleague Boyle, for one, couldn’t really comprehend what was happening. He said, “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 — it was just insane.”

With regard to the screen siblings, Boyle explained, “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.”

The chosen actors were Matthew Alan and Catherine Combs, and cameraman Timothy Simons had nothing but positive things to say about them. “They didn’t audition together, but I remember both their performances being the best performances that anybody saw that day,” he recalled. “Especially the young woman — she had an incredible energy in the room.”

For Alan, being cast was a huge deal. “I was auditioning for a lot of commercials at the time, and I was still pretty green,” the actor admitted. “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.”

Alan enjoyed working with Combs a lot, telling GQ, “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.” Even though the two actors never saw each other again, their particular — ahem — chemistry would live on.

The queasy reading of the commercial initially took off when blogger Alexa Marinos asked, “Is it just me, or does Peter want to bang his little sister?” A marketer in her day job, she told GQ, “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?’”

Comedian Glenn Boozan, who wrote the Above Average parody, mused, “There was some vibe to the ad where I was like, ‘Is this a dog whistle for something?’” He recalled the strange content of the commercial, before joking, “And then they’re trying to sell us coffee? What’s happening?” Eventually, after talking to other like-minded viewers, he realized that “it wasn’t just a ‘me being sick in the head’ thing.”

Because the internet is — let’s be honest — a weird and wonderful place, an entire subculture soon built up around the commercial. It even developed a dedicated fan-fiction community. Yes, we’re not joking. Writer Alixtii O’Krul, who penned a story entitled “Where the Heart Is,” told GQ their theory about why this particular ad lent itself to such fan expansion.

“The commercial has all the right ingredients,” O’Krul explained. “Two attractive 20-something leads, palpable — although presumably unintentional — 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.”

While the makers of the ad may not have agreed with this mischievous reading of the material, many have at least seen the funny side over the years. Alan revealed, “It was so early on in my career that when people were first teasing about it, first I was like, ‘No, no, you’re missing the point.’ I was very protective of it at the beginning.”

“But as time went on, I love the fact that it’s this discussion topic that people laugh about,” Alan continued. “Some of the spoofs and the different edits that I’ve seen are pretty hilarious.” Dillman added, “I’ve had a handful of spots I’ve directed over the years be parodied… I don’t know why you would take yourself seriously with that stuff — it’s just funny stuff.”

Amusingly, Alan revealed to Vanity Fair in 2015 that his family were more than happy to join in the affectionate teasing. His parents insist on drinking Folgers coffee at Christmas, and they even gifted him a special mug with his face on it. However — Shock! Horror! Betrayal! — he then confessed, “I love Folgers coffee… but I’m more of a French-press type of guy.”

Speaking of Folgers, how did the firm react to the commercial becoming synonymous with one of the biggest taboos in our culture? Well, Tina Meyer-Hawkes, a marketing executive at J.M. Smucker, which owns Folgers, gave GQ an interesting answer. A very corporate answer, but an answer, nonetheless.

“There have been a number of tweets, memes, and parody videos over the years,” Meyer-Hawkes. “There has also been a lot of long-lasting positive sentiment and adoration for this ad.” However, she added that official company policy was not to engage with any of the weirdness, or “misinterpreted conversation” as she oh-so-diplomatically put it.

Now, up to this point we’ve heard from nearly everyone involved in the commercial. Everyone except for one important person: the sister herself, actress Catherine Combs. How did she feel about the world insinuating that she loved her on-screen brother in a creepy way? The short answer is: “We don’t know.” She hasn’t spoken about it publicly, and she refused to take part in GQ’s oral history.

Since shooting the commercial, Combs has plied her trade mostly in theater, though she has some screen credits as well. At Chicago’s Goodman Theater she’s starred in productions of Gloria and Smokefall. In LA and Washington, D.C., she was a part of Ivo van Hove’s A View From the Bridge, and in New York’s off-Broadway scene she’s appeared in The Sensuality Party and The Hairy Ape.

On television, she appeared as Taffy in multiple episodes of HBO’s The Deuce, as well as enjoying guest spots in New Amsterdam and Fosse/Verdon. Generally, she seems to keep a fairly low profile, though it’s obvious that acting is in her blood. After all, her father is cult horror icon Jeffrey Combs, star of Re-Animator, Star Trek, and The Frighteners.

As for Alan, his career had begun to pick up a little steam even before the Folgers ad. In 2007 he’d appeared in numerous episodes of Ghost Whisperer: The Other Side, an online sister series to CBS’ hit supernatural drama. He’d also turned up in Veronica Mars, Cold Case, and Eleventh Hour, as well as a couple of episodes of Lost.

After the commercial, Alan spent most of the ensuing years appearing in guest roles in countless hit shows. Most prominently, he showed up in two episodes of Sons of Anarchy and three episodes of Murder in the First. His single-episode appearances came in the likes of CSI: Miami, Bones, Criminal Minds, Modern Family, Lethal Weapon and NCIS: New Orleans.

Then, in 2017 Alan leveled up in his TV career when he earned the role of criminal Seth Massey in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. He portrayed the villain across 10 episodes in the show’s three-season run. In 2019 he spoke to Horror News about how the story, which dealt with some troubling themes, had a profound effect on him.

“It slowly became this incredible show that people are talking about,” Alan explained. “It opened up a lot of dialogue on a lot of issues. For me, it’s become this really cool thing to be a part of. You know, I look at the work differently now that I have a child. It is a conversation starter for consent and multiple discussions on things teenagers are dealing with.”

And while he was working on 13 Reasons Why, Alan landed the biggest part of his career. He signed on to play Chris Merrill in season two of Castle Rock, a show that brought together many of “Master of Horror” Stephen King’s greatest creations into a single story. Interestingly, though, he was initially chosen for another character — until fate intervened.

Speaking to the Daily Actor website in 2019, Alan revealed all. He said, “I was supposed to play one of the prison guards in season one, and about three days before filming was supposed to begin, I broke my foot on another job and I had to pull out. And I was devastated.” All was not lost, though.

Alan must have made an impression on the casting director, because they sought him out for the role of Merrill. And it turned out to be much more substantial than his initial security guard part. The whole experience convinced Alan that sometimes the universe has a plan, even if you can’t see it at first. He beamed, “Things worked out in this crazy cool way.”

Back when he first suffered the foot injury, though, things looked bleak. Alan admitted, “I mean at the time, if you would have told me, ‘Hey, it’s going to work out, okay?’ I just, I couldn’t hear it at the time because I was drowning in my own misery. But it was just a reminder to me to just let things happen the way they’re supposed to happen.”

Alan continued, “I mean, it’s tough because at the time you think that an opportunity like that’s just not going to come across again. And so, yeah, it was hard to remain open-minded at the time.” He then joked, “But where I’m at now, I will gladly break both my feet next time. If this is the way it could work out, you know?”

Not only is Alan’s acting career thriving, but his personal life’s also in a great place. In 2019 he married actress Camilla Luddington at an intimate ceremony in California. Fans of Grey’s Anatomy will be very familiar with her, as she’s starred as Dr. Jo Wilson on the show since 2012. In fact, Luddington’s racked up a mind-boggling 188 episodes to date!

People magazine reported that the happy couple tied the knot to the sounds of The Temper Trap song “Sweet Disposition.” It was a reference to their first date back in 2008 at one of the band’s shows. The ceremony came a year and a half after Alan’s proposal, which Luddington had gushed about on Instagram.

“Sooo this happened on New Year’s Eve,” wrote the happy bride-to-be. “I’m not sure I even let Matt get through his proposal before I started yelling YES YES YES. Of course it was a yes!” By that point, Alan and Luddington were already parents to daughter Hayden, who came bouncing into the world in March 2017.

Then, a year after they married, the couple welcomed their second child in August 2020. Luddington took to Instagram to write, “After what felt like a year-long third trimester it finally happened! Matt and I are sooo happy to announce the birth of our sweet baby boy Lucas, otherwise known as my little lion — shout-out to Leos!”

So, there you have it. That commercial, while controversial, turned out to be just the thing the actors needed to get their acting careers off the ground. It’s been the same for stars of other ads, too. Do you remember the enthusiastic redhead who fronted Wendy’s ad campaign in the early 2010s? She was controversial for different reasons, dividing opinion up and down the country. Even so, she seems to have done pretty well for herself since appearing on our screens.

The woman in question appeared in multiple adverts for the fast-food chain. There was the commercial centered on the flatbread grilled chicken, for example, in which she impressed a friend with her choice of “gourmet lunch.” Audiences at home were less impressed with the kooky dance moves she made while he, for reasons unknown, filmed her holding said sandwich.

Then there was the bizarre 1980s soft-rock parody video in which she pines over an old favorite pretzel bacon cheeseburger. But her rain-soaked sense of despair disappears when she discovers that all of the burger’s calorific goodness is going back on the Wendy’s menu. It remains a mystery, though, as to whether the voice belting out Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” is really hers.

And what about the ad focusing on the Tuscan chicken on ciabatta in which she greets a friend outside a Wendy’s the Italian way — by kissing him on both cheeks? When in Rome as the two pals say. Confused by this new form of saying hello, another acquaintance then ends up planting his lips on a poor woman he doesn’t even know.

The Wendy’s girl also appeared in a commercial in which she saved her tight-fisted date some cash by opting for fast food over an expensive restaurant. Elsewhere, she dished out advice to a stranger on the life-changing power of side dishes and called out a colleague for having the audacity to get a burger from somewhere other than Wendy’s. And the actress also helped to console a little leaguer who’d just tasted defeat.

To some viewers, these new Wendy’s adverts were pretty much the best thing on TV. Several Facebook pages and websites were created in honor of the redheaded star. Despite this widespread admiration, though, the actress also had her fair share of detractors, too.

A Facebook page was even set up titled “I hate the Wendy’s girl,” while Twitter was awash with derogatory comments about the actress, too. “The girl in the Wendy’s commercials gets on my nerves a bit,” a user of the social media platform remarked. Another wrote, “The Wendy’s girl actually makes me want to eat there less.”

The mystery lady also ended up sparking a debate on Twitter about the most irritating face of a company. A user wrote, “The Wendy’s girl has replaced Progressive’s Flo on my list of annoying company commercials.” This was followed by another tweet that read, “I don’t know who’s worse. Flo from the Progressive commercials or the Wendy’s girl.”

If you aren’t familiar with Flo, she’s the Progressive car ad salesperson renowned for wearing excessive makeup and a headband. She must’ve done something right, though. The actress in question racked up over five million followers on Facebook and has appeared in no fewer than 50 different adverts.

But who exactly is the woman who once caused such a reaction in those Wendy’s ads? Well, her name’s Morgan Smith Goodwin, she hails from Alabama, and she was aged 28 at the time of the campaign. The Yahoo! website also reported that she’s married, having walked down the aisle with the boss of a New York eatery named Gramercy Tavern, Dave Goodwin.

Morgan attended Birmingham-Southern College to study musical theater before relocating to the Big Apple and chasing her acting dreams. She went on to bag roles in various off-Broadway productions including Freckleface Strawberry and the Red Mountain Theatre Company’s staging of Sweet Charity. Morgan also appeared on the former’s official cast recording.

Some viewers may have believed that Morgan was intended to represent an adult version of the iconic character — Wendy — depicted in the fast-food chain’s logo. That’s because Wendy famously has red hair and freckles, too. But get ready for a big surprise: Morgan isn’t actually a redhead.

That’s right: Morgan actually had dark blonde hair before undergoing the red dye treatment. But it seems that she was more than happy to have taken the plunge. In a 2014 interview with Canadian channel Metro, she revealed that her new look had “given me a ton of exposure.”

Morgan was also extremely proud to have been chosen as the new Wendy’s girl, a character originally inspired by the daughter of Dave Thomas, the fast-food chain’s creator. “You have to be forever grateful and very flattered when a company will trust you with their brand,” she said. “So I don’t take it lightly.”

No doubt the considerable pay packet made Morgan take the job just that little more seriously, too. According to reports, the actress was given more money for her multiple appearances as a Wendy’s girl than most viewers will earn in a lifetime. Yes, Morgan was apparently paid a colossal $3 million for her four-year stint with the fast-food giant.

And the company itself seemed just as pleased that Morgan was now a part of Wendy’s history. Brand marketing VP Liz Geraghty told the Yahoo Food website, “We’re thrilled that Morgan Smith Goodwin, who we call ‘Red,’ has resonated with our customers since we first introduced her in our advertising in April 2012. ‘Red’ has been our most successful effort since the Dave Thomas advertising campaign in the 1990s.”

Yes, you might remember that Wendy’s founder started to help shift burgers on TV himself from the late 1980s onward. Dave had launched his first eatery in Ohio in 1969, and within a decade the chain had expanded to more than 1,000 outlets! His television ads later made Dave a household name, with nine-tenths of the U.S. population able to identify him during the 1990s according to one poll.

Dave’s real-life daughter used to appear in Wendy’s commercials, too. And some customers believed that the firm had betrayed its roots by casting another much younger actress in the titular role. Wendy Thomas was in her early 50s when Morgan, who was nearly half her age, came on to the scene.

With her green eyes and flowing red locks, Morgan was mentioned in the same breath as Alyson Hannigan, the star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and How I Met Your Mother. In a blog piece published the same year that the actress took on the role, writer Amy Van Sant remarked, “Wendy Thomas was the real Wendy. Morgan Smith Goodwin was the hot Wendy.”

But marketing VP Liz Geraghty was keen to state that the new ads were never intended to erase the company’s history. She told Yahoo Food, “Morgan is not meant to replace Wendy, who stands alone as the original namesake. Instead, Morgan is a brand advocate with a quick wit and engaging personality that America has gravitated toward.”

Hollywood’s casting directors certainly gravitated toward Morgan following her stint as the face of Wendy’s. Before aligning herself with the fast-food giant, the actress had a relatively slim filmography. There was an uncredited role in hipster dramedy How to Make It In America and a couple of shorts, but that was pretty much it.

Morgan seemed to take a bit of a break from the industry first, though. And then there was something of a false start when she landed a supporting role in the reboot of classic sitcom Coach. Morgan was cast as Craig T. Nelson’s daughter-in-law, but unfortunately, the revival was canceled by NBC before a single episode had made it to air.

And Morgan hasn’t quite yet got over it. In 2021 she posted a throwback photo of a Coach script on Instagram captioned, “I only took four pictures because we thought we had months ahead of us and I wanted to be present for every moment. That was the wrong choice and I’m still [annoyed] they canceled it.”

Luckily, Morgan bounced back a year later with the recurring role of Candi Caruso in political satire Veep. Morgan enjoyed a six-episode stint as President Montez’s chief of staff on the award-winning show. And then in 2016 she starred alongside McGhee Monteith in comedic web series Whitney and Britni.

The roles then just kept on coming. Morgan appeared in YouTube original series Liza on Demand, guested as Bethany on the first season of Why Women Kill, and appeared twice as Agent Rhymer in Netflix thriller Messiah. She also bagged one-off parts in procedural 9-1-1 and romantic drama Love in the Time of Corona.

But while her acting career’s now thriving, Morgan will undoubtedly always be remembered for her stint as the Wendy’s girl. So are there any similarities between the permanently peppy redhead and the dark blonde star who played her? Well, not when it comes to junk food, that’s for sure.

During a 2011 interview with website Al.com, Morgan was asked about her guilty pleasure foods. And there wasn’t a spicy chipotle burger or bacon portabella melt to be found in her reply. She said, “I’m a candy fiend: Twizzlers, pretty much any type of Haribo gummies, peanut butter M&Ms, Starburst. I’m not ashamed to admit it.”

You’re unlikely to find Morgan at her local Wendy’s when out with her husband Dave, either. When questioned about her ideal date night, the actress responded, “Well, my husband is a big food and wine guy, so most of our outings center around good food and drink. I happen to think this is just perfect and wouldn’t change a thing.”

And Morgan’s unlikely to have spotted any of those Wendy’s ads that popped up nearly every other commercial break back in the early 2010s. The actress claimed that she barely watches television in her spare time. She did enjoy So You Think You Can Dance, though, adding, “I love that they’ve made so many forms of dance accessible to so many.”

Morgan claimed that she was often mistaken for a famous dancer herself: Dancing With the Stars favorite Julianne Hough. But when asked who she’d like to play her on screen, the actress plumped for two other names. “I’m gonna go with Emma Stone. She’s got substance and wit,” Morgan said. “Or Kristen Wiig. We share a knack for being supremely awkward.”

In a 2015 interview with YouTube Channel 2 Cullman, though, Morgan showed that she did share some personality traits with her most famous character. The actress certainly displayed the same kind of peppiness during the 35-minute chat that’d made her a Wendy’s favorite. And it seemed that most viewers warmed to the woman behind all the burger spiel.

There was the user who remarked in the comments section, “One of the most beautiful ladies I have ever seen, and a killer personality to match. Rare combination.” And another added, “She’s adorable. I miss seeing her ads on the TV.”

More than a half-decade on from that interview and Morgan doesn’t appear to have lost her zest for life. Her Instagram account’s littered with glamorous selfies, heart-warming family shots, and snaps of various trips and nights out. And she’s still with her restaurant manager husband Dave: the pair celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary with a romantic night out in 2021.

So we know what Morgan’s been up to since her Wendy’s days. But how’s the fast-food chain fared with its TV advertising since “Red” was dropped? Well, it certainly took a different approach in 2021. Instead of having an embodiment of its red-haired mascot drool over the latest menu, the firm invited an ex-NFL star to do so instead.

The hit commercial sees Reggie Bush bang on the windows of a Wendy’s eatery to ask an employee whether the fresh eggs are for him. Several colleagues then gather to remark on how keen the former footballer is on their breakfast food. Reggie’s so keen, in fact, that he’s wearing pajama pants adorned with depictions of breakfast sandwiches, plus a red Wendy’s hoodie.

On social media, though, Wendy’s has developed a reputation for being a bit of a mean girl. In contrast to the sweet-natured redhead who appears in the profile photo, its Twitter account can’t stop throwing shade at the firm’s fast food rivals. When invited to label McDonald’s famous golden arches on the platform by a cheeky follower, the company replied, “Is it a garbage truck?”

And when asked by another Twitter follower whether the firm really did have a beef with its competitors, the reply was: “We have beef. No idea what they have.” It’s an approach that appears to be paying off, though. Wendy’s now has virtually the same amount of followers on Twitter as the home of Ronald McDonald. And that’s despite the fact the company doesn’t have anywhere near the same number of restaurants across America.

It doesn’t seem likely, then, that Wendy’s is going to rely on its wholesome, freckle-faced mascot again anytime soon. But more traditional fans will always have Morgan’s memorable ads from the early 2010s to repeatedly watch.