It was the 1920’s and Coca-Cola had a big problem.
People mostly thought of their product as a refreshing drink in summer, but sales normally
dropped substantially in the winter when it got colder.
And this makes sense - who gets in from the snow, feeling freezing cold, and immediately
thinks: I want a cold glass of Coke.
So Coca-Cola desperately needed a way to improve sales in winter, but just running more ads
wasn’t going to be enough to change people’s perceptions of the product - they needed something
that would create a deeper long-lasting connection in consumers' minds between Coke and winter.
And what’s most people’s favourite part about winter?
Christmas.
In fact, for many it’s the happiest time of the whole year.
A time of togetherness and joy and everything that Coca-Cola has always tried to associate
itself with.
Because the truth is ever since Coke first began in the late 1800’s their success has
always been built on one simple thing: they do not sell you on their product or its taste
- instead they try to associate the feeling of happiness with drinking a coke.
So connecting Coke to Christmas would be the holy grail.
So Coke thought: what if we could embed ourselves into this holiday, and what better way than
the beloved figure of Santa - the personification of Christmas itself.
Now, in present day this may seem an obvious strategy, but remember there’s nothing inherently
about Coke’s product that connects to Christmas in any way - it’s ultimately just an unhealthy
fizzy drink, and there are many other similar products.
And yet, if you asked pretty much anyone what brand they most associate with Christmas,
the majority of people would probably say Coca-Cola.
So, how did Coke pull this off?
Well, although Coke tested a few different Christmas ads in the 1920’s, the big breakthrough
for them came in 1931 when Coca-Cola commissioned an illustrator named Haddon Sundblom to create
a wholesome version of Santa Claus holding a bottle of Coke.
Now, you may have heard that Coca-Cola designed the modern Santa Claus as we know him today,
or that Coke is responsible for changing Santa’s suit colour to red and white to fit their
branding.
But neither of these things are true.
The image of Santa as we know it today, the jolly fat guy with a red and white suit, white
beard, and rosy cheeks - existed long before Coca-Cola’s inclusion of him in their ads.
In fact, Coke’s illustrator who made the iconic Coca-Cola Santa ad was heavily influenced
by the classic 1823 poem ‘A visit from St Nicholas’, or as it’s more commonly known
‘Twas the night before Christmas’, which describes the cheerful Santa we know today.
And many others before Coca-Cola, such as political cartoonist Thomas Nast, had already
helped popularize the jolly Santa that we’re now familiar with.
This was an illustration from 1881, before Coca-Cola even existed.
Or Here's a cover from Puck Magazine in December 1905, showing the modern red suited Santa.
However, whilst Coca-Cola did not invent this image of how Santa looks, they can definitely
be credited with popularizing it and cementing this version of Santa as the Santa we all
know today.
You see, there used to be many different versions of Santa - different colors, like Santa in
a green or tan suit.
Or even sometimes Santa as an elf, or a scary Claus who punished children who misbehaved.
So unlike today where we all pretty much have the same image in mind for what Santa looks
like, back then there were many different variations.
And that’s because no single person or company created Santa, it was an evolution.
In fact, the earliest concept comes from the folklore traditions of Saint Nicholas all
the way back in the 4th century, who was famous for giving gifts to the poor.
But then over the years elements from characters in different countries, like the English figure
of Father Christmas and the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, all kind of merged together into
this figure we call Santa Claus.
But that’s where Coca-Cola comes in.
Coke’s marketing team realised that there was a very fortunate coincidence: that one
of the most popular versions of Santa wore red and white - the same colours as Coca-Cola,
so of course this is the version Coke always used in their advertising.
And unsurprisingly they also made sure Santa in their ads was always very cheerful, unlike
some of the slightly meaner Santa’s that were drawn before Coke came along.
And Coke’s relentless ads every year meant that they massively helped popularize this
specific version of Santa - as Coke’s constant plastering of this imagery in magazines, billboards
and shop displays gave people more exposure to this version, and reinforced it as the
typical Santa.
So basically, Santa’s that looked very similar to this were already popular before Coke’s
ads began.
And it's believed the red and white colours may have come from the red and white bishop
robes of Saint Nicholas.
But Coke’s extensive advertising did play a big role in proliferating this specific
version all over the world, and helped solidify it as the main one.
And when you think about it, this makes sense.
Coke creating some completely new version of Santa in totally different colors wouldn't
have been anywhere near as effective as capitalizing on the existing Santa character who was already
popular, and simply trying to attach their product to him.
As the whole idea was to hijack something people already knew and loved.
It began in 1931 with a campaign called “My Hat’s Off to the Pause that Refreshes”
- the tagline was: 'Old Santa, busiest man in the world, takes time out for the pause
that refreshes with ice cold Coca-Cola."
- the idea behind it was that we all need to take a pause from the stress and busyness
of everyday life and enjoy a moment of refreshment by having a Coke - even if you’re Santa
delivering all those presents!
The ad ran in many popular magazines such as “The Saturday Evening Post.”
But that was just the start - every year Coca-Cola ran more and more Christmas ads featuring
this version of Santa with Coca-Cola, to reinforce the association between Coke and Christmas.
They continued to use the same illustrator every year between 1931 and 1964, which meant
Santa’s style remained consistent.
It became an annual tradition to feature this version of Santa holding or drinking bottles
of Coke.
And the best part?
Since nobody actually owns the rights to Santa, Coke don’t even have to pay any royalties
or fees to use the iconic character.
Of course, they didn’t just stop at Santa - they used other heartwarming winter imagery
too such as polar bears with Cokes, and then introduced the classic Coke trucks with Christmas
lights.
And the ads absolutely worked - not only increasing Coca-Cola sales in winter, but also achieving
another important goal: targeting children.
For many impressionable kids, seeing the beloved Santa figure constantly surrounded by Coca-Cola
undoubtedly created a deep association between the product and the happy feelings of Christmas.
This was actually crucial for Coke, as there’s strong research to show if you can get kids
to drink Coke when they’re young, they’re much more likely to become a customer for
life.
Not just that, but you may be familiar with the study of Pavlov’s dogs - Pavlov was
a Russian psychologist who did an experiment where right before he fed a group of dogs,
he'd ring a bell.
He did this again and again until eventually the dogs started salivating when the bell
rang even if there wasn't any food present, because they'd been conditioned to think that
the bell ringing meant food was coming.
This was the discovery of classical conditioning.
Now when it comes to Coca-cola, a person may not initially have strong feelings towards
Coke, but they do have strong positive feelings towards Christmas; happiness, family, excitement,
and so on.
So by conditioning people every year in their ads that Coke and Christmas go together, just
like Pavlov did with the bell and food, eventually people associate those same positive feelings
with Coca-Cola.
Now, whilst this was undoubtedly great work by Coke’s marketing team, what’s not so
well known is that even before Coke had the idea of using Santa in their ads, a different
drinks company had already done it…
There are ads from a brand called White Rock Beverages at least 15 years before the first
Coke santa ad appears, in which a modern-style Santa is delivering presents, which includes
White Rock Water.
This campaign led to the business becoming one of the largest producers of mineral water
in the United States by 1923, and so they soon started using Santa to sell their ginger
ale as well.
Coke would certainly have been aware of these ads, and it’s entirely possible this inspired
Coke’s marketing team to do something very similar.
So, why do people still repeat the myth of Coke changing Santa?
Well, the actual truth that a sequence of illustrators developed on each other’s ideas
just isn’t quite as memorable.
Plus Coke have been a little sneaky as they actually claim “Santa’s jolly look all
started in 1931 with Haddon Sundblom and Coca-Cola.” - which isn’t really true as we’ve literally
just seen very similar versions existed before this.
But Coke can certainly take credit for popularizing and standardizing the final modern look of
Santa.
Before Coke not everyone had the same image of Santa, he wasn’t always red and jolly,
and so if Coke hadn’t needed to increase winter sales, and spent so much money to reinforce
this Santa into public consciousness, then it is possible this Santa version wouldn't
have become so prevalent.
Of course, not everyone is happy about Coke hijacking Christmas like this, there’s even
been calls from health experts that Coca-Cola's Christmas lorry tour should be banned for
'false gifts of bad teeth and weight problems'.
So, why has Coke been so successful at attaching itself to Christmas?
I mean nowadays it’s hard to imagine the holidays without Coca-Cola ads and images;
I’ve literally heard people say ‘you know it’s christmas when the coke ads start’.
Well, perhaps one of the biggest factors in why Coke’s Santa ads have worked so well
is that Coca-Cola has always stayed the same - no big changes to their product, logo, colours
or branding.
I mean they did briefly try with new coke but it backfired horribly so they quickly
changed back.
And so by consistently running the exact same kind of ads every single year for the same
product and brand, it reinforces the connection and becomes a tradition.
In recent years we’ve seen a huge rise of other brands running big Christmas ads that
try to be more emotion driven - like supermarkets pouring millions into ads that don’t really
focus on their products, but instead tell a story to try and associate their brand with
Christmas.
But despite this, nobody comes close to coke.
Coke have been running their christmas ads for nearly 100 years now - the association
is deeply embedded.
And for Coca-Cola it’s extra easy because they can repeat pretty much the same campaign
each year.
So whereas most companies have to come up with something new every year, people expect
to see Santa with a coke and the coke trucks - in fact some people get mad at Coke if they
don’t do the same thing.
And so when people ask why do Coke spend so much on advertising when everyone already
knows about their product, the answer is they’re not advertising to make you aware of their
product, they’re advertising to create associations in your subconscious, so that when you go
to the shop and there’s a row of different cola’s, you’re instinctively drawn to
Coke.
This also helps explain the Pepsi Paradox, which is the concept that in blind taste tests
more people prefer Pepsi, but given the visible choice of options, more people prefer Coke
- it shows that people feel more connected to the company.
And there’s no doubt the billions of dollars Coke has spent to weave their product into
Christmas has played a big role in that.
And that is how Coca-Cola stole Christmas for its marketing efforts, and thus created
one of the most powerful branding associations in the world.
The crazy part is that Coke didn’t even start out as a soft drink, it started out
as a dodgy patent medicine - and if you want to know the insane full history of Coca-Cola,
just click here.
Finally, if you are watching this at Christmas, I just wanna say thank you for all your support
this year, you are a legend, and I wish you a very happy holidays.
Cheers.