A Brand Story: Santa And Coca-Cola

Published date07 January 2021
Subject MatterIntellectual Property, Trademark
Law FirmBristows
AuthorElisabetta Ferraro

This article was first published on CITMA, December 2020

There is no doubt that Christmas "is the most wonderful time of the year." What makes it so wonderful are its secular rituals and traditions which vary from country to country and house to house, but there is one Christmas icon which is found everywhere: Santa Claus. Or, more accurately, Coca Cola's version of the Santa we all know and love.

The history of Santa Claus

Santa Claus existed many years before Coca-Cola started to use him for its Christmas advertising campaign.

Historians agree that this character was inspired by Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra of the 4th Century, who was famous for leaving coins in the shoes and stockings of poor children.

The legend of Santa bringing gifts to the homes of well-behaved children on the night of Christmas Eve became so popular in western culture that many illustrators attempted to bring him to life.

He was sketched as a gaunt man carrying a stick intended for disobedient children, or as a thinner, horse-riding disciplinarian with a gloomy - even evil - face. Luckily, none of these efforts endured.

Coca-Cola and Santa Claus

It was in the 1920s that Coca-Cola began to include Santa Claus in its Christmas advertising. However, the real revolution happened in 1931 when the company commissioned Haddon Sundblom, a Dutch illustrator, to reimagine Santa Claus.

Sundblom eventually came up with the jolly Santa we know today, with his signature red velvet vest and white beard. He took inspiration from the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas," written by Clement Clark Moore in 1822, which years later would be referred to as "The Night Before Christmas" after its famous first line.

The poem described an old and cheerful Santa who could magically sneak in and out of homes through chimneys, travelling the world on a tiny sleigh carried by eight reindeer that he affectionately named. Although it may seem a fortunate coincidence, the use of red and white colours for Santa's outfit was not a homage to Coca-Cola's brand colours, but rather was inspired by the Bishop's mitre clothing which may have been worn by the real St Nicholas.

This happy and human Santa was such a success that Coca-Cola asked Sundblom to recreate an almost identical version of him in 1931, given that even the smallest of changes were liable to upset the most passionate consumers.

Consider, for example, the time Santa appeared without his wedding ring and Coca-Cola received bags of letters asking: "What...

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