Coca-Cola and Santa Claus
Dec|14|2009 Laura Savard and Mark Gallagher
Contrary to what some believe, Santa Claus was not created by the Coca-Cola Company, but rather was a combination of many myths and legends, cultures and influences.
Snopes confirms that the myth is just that. However, in the spirit of the holiday we have provided a brief history of Jolly Old St Nick.
The American version of Santa Claus was brought to New York by 17th century Dutch settlers. They called him “Sinter Klaas.” The name “St. A Claus” appeared in the American press as early as 1773. But it was Washington Irving who, in 1809, first popularized Saint Nicholas with his History of New York, published under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. Irving described a Claus who rode horseback and arrived each “Eve of Saint Nicholas.” Fourteen years later Clement Clarke Moore penned The Night Before Christmas and gave solidity to the tale with names for reindeer, a distinctive laugh and winks, as well as the famous “lays his finger aside of his nose” (taken directly from Irving’s 1809 description).
As descriptive as their words were, no images adorned their pages, and so, Irving and Moore left the reader great latitude to interpret the likeness of father Christmas. Crafting Santa’s likeness would be the task of illustrator Thomas Nast, who from the 1860s through the 1880s illustrated the covers of the Harper’s Weekly Christmas issues, as pictured here. Adding such details as Santa’s North Pole workshop and his list of children naughty and nice, Nast depicted a rotund, human-sized Santa Claus, rather than the elf of Moore’s poem.
Then in 1931, Illustrator Haddon Sundblom created a series of Santa Claus ads for Coca-Cola. Sundblom’s Santa image would be an updated, slightly more modern version of the character created by Nast. The popular magazine and billboard ads help to establish Santa’s grandfatherly image and standardize his Coca-Cola inspired red and white attire as well as the red and green color scheme we now associate with Christmas. However, as we can see by this timeline, the legend of a Coca-Cola created Santa is far from true. Coca-Cola played a large part in crafting our view of Santa, yet different customs from all over the Northern Hemisphere have come together over the years to create the jolly white bearded man.
Oh, and his shiny, red-nosed reindeer friend Rudolph? He was invented in 1939 by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward Company.
Merry Christmas to all.
Logos are Dead?
Sound Symbolism
“Drive” Animation
Brand Values
Problem Shaping
Clarity is Everything
Pattern Recognition
Crowdsourcing
Brand Sonification
Santa Claus, now there's a brand that the ad agencies haven't broken!
Merry Christmas to you guys too!
Perhaps the short life cycle of the Christmas season provides less room for evolution or augmentation. If Santa is only top-of-mind for one month per year, then it could be argued that it takes twelve years for him to age one. Or, perhaps time heals all wounds, and any damage done is forgotten by the following year.
Merry Christmas Marcus! I wish you and your family all the best.
Mark Gallagher
Brand Expressionist®
Mark,
Fun post. Love to learn the history and origins of cultural icons and themes.
You and your readers might be interested in a recent blog post of my own that discusses how Coke and Haden Sundblom drew from historic interpretations of Santa to create the archetypal Claus that we all know today. It's a fascinating story of branding. Find it here…
http://bit.ly/4voIhi
Happy holidays!
Ken,
Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Mark Gallagher
Brand Expressionist®
I think this is a great demonstration that even in the 1700's creating an idea was a collaborative and long winded process! It's amazing to me that a brand could leverage something so well-and so early-that it would become an integral part of society for hundreds of years to come.
I also had no idea what the original history of Santa was. Thanks for sharing!
Happy Holidays!
-Charlie
Charlie,
Thanks for posting. Happy Holidays to you too!
Laura Savard
Brand Expressionist®