TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Jolly Well, Coke Affects Santa's Look

ADVERTISEMENT

By JIM AUCHMUTEY Cox News Service

Published: December 11, 2007

ATLANTA - No, Virginia, Santa Claus was not invented by the Coca-Cola Co.

The contention that Coke created the modern image of Santa and decked him out in corporate red has become something of an urban myth in recent years. Just the other day, the BBC phoned Coca-Cola archivist Phil Mooney and put him on the radio to address the issue.

"I've heard more questions about it in the last five years than I ever did before," Mooney says. "I think it's the Internet."

His response is that a red-clad Santa actually dates to the 1800s, when illustrator Thomas Nast depicted him that way in Harper's Weekly and the first American Christmas cards showed him in crimson.

That's not to say, though, that Coke didn't change the way Americans envision Santa.

The classic Koke Kringle appeared in 42 ads that ran on billboards and in magazines such as National Geographic from 1931 to 1964. Artist Haddon Sundblom painted him as a jovial, rotund, ruddy-cheeked fellow who bears some resemblance to a later creation of his, the Quaker Oats man.

By comparison, many 19th century Santas looked lean and rather dour. And some of them, it's true, wore green and other colors.

The red outfit has provided fodder for conspiracy theorists.

"He wears the corporate colors for a reason," James B. Twitchell charged in his book "Twenty Ads That Shook the World." "He is working out of Atlanta, not out of the North Pole."
Archivist Mooney is adamant: "The fact that red was our corporate color was just a happy coincidence."

Snopes.com, a Web site that debunks urban myths, sides with the Coke archivist.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT