As the world’s largest beverage company, there’s no denying Coca Cola’s continued prowess in an increasingly-competitive marketplace – especially commercially. Extensive and consistent advertising of their mass-market products coupled with a sterling and trustworthy brand reputation has resulted in annual turnover of no less than $35.6 billion for the soft drink specialist. And in relation to this time of the year, most of us have heard the story that Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) was only made to wear red-and-white clothing as a result of a Coca-Cola marketing campaign back in the 1930’s. This, however, is not the case: another business operating in the same marketplace as Coca-Cola had already used a Santa dressed in red and white no less than 15 years before the commercial giant, and one had even appeared on several covers of Puck magazine in the first few years of the 20th century (1902, 1904 & 1905). Further still, depictions of the jolly character stretch back to the early 1800s, roughly 100 years before anyone at Coca-Cola would’ve ever thought up the idea! So who was the beverage company to win the red-and-white Santa race ahead of the current market leader? And who truly established the FIRST depiction of Saint Nick in these specific colours? Read on to find out!
Red-dy, Sled-dy, Snow!❄️
The history of Santa Claus goes as far back as the 4th century to Saint Nicholas of Myra – a Christian bishop from Ancient Greece who’d give gifts to the poor. He is widely regarded as the primary predecessor to the festive figure, and led the way for other characters like Sinterklaas and Odin before we arrived at the more modern character who we all know and love today (except for Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch, of course!). The first reference we know of Santa Claus in a red outfit, however, dates back to an 1821 children’s poem titled “Old Santeclaus with Much Delight” – here, each of the eight verses was accompanied by a coloured illustration, with those of verses one and three showing quite clearly the title character in red (shown above). No other work or depiction prior to this poem had given Santa Claus clothing of this colour and it even pre-dates The Coca-Cola Company’s founding by a whole 65 years! Illustrations of the figure wearing red thereafter increased throughout the 19th century and marketers soon began to catch on…
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Beat Coke to it but still behind? That’s soda pressing 🥤
Fast forward to 1915 and the first soft drink company releases an advertisement which includes a red-and-white Santa, but it’s not Coca-Cola. No, in fact, it’s White Rock Beverages who uses him to promote their mineral water; the successful campaign led to the business becoming one of the largest producers of mineral water in the United States by 1923, the same year in which they once again used him to sell their ginger ale. The Atlanta-based firm presumably couldn’t believe the success that their competitors were having as a result of this ingenious idea, and soon after released their own marketing efforts with a similarly red-and-white Santa Claus.
🎶Holidays are coming, holidays are coming…🎶
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The first was a 1930 advert painted by Fred Mitzen (shown above) before Haddon Sundblom took the reins and was commissioned by the company to develop campaign images using Santa throughout the 1930s. Due to the popularity of Coca-Cola and the reputation it had already established since being founded in 1886, sales held firm during the Great Depression and it’s no surprise that we all today make the common mistake of misassociating them with being the first to have the idea. Whereas in actual fact, White Rock beat them to the punch – I think it’s pretty clear who came out on top, though!
If you have a topic you’d like to see a fact on next week, comment below and I’ll get to it!
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHICH
