These are hard times for parents. In a world where perverts sneak around to ‘play’ with children and put the dvd for sale on the internet, you have to be damn clever to explain to your kids that an old man with a beard has been watching their moves all year and that he’s going to be in the house on Christmas. Sure, he’s going to leave presents, but in exchange for what? With all those clever kids and the way they master tools as webcams and other digital toys, you’ll be lucky to come home and don’t find the entire place torn apart because the kids were looking for the cameras that allowed Santa to spy on them. This minor issue aside, Santa Clause, est. 1931 by the Coca-Cola Company, is celebrating his 75th birthday. No other icon of advertising and marketing has ever been around that long. It’s the most successful marketing stunt ever. Coca-Cola introduced it’s first Santa in 1931, in a series of ads in The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, National Geographic, and other US publications. The original Santa was created by Swedish-American artist Haddon Sundblom and was the basis for Santa Claus as we know him today. A cultural icon that penetrated deep into the lives of millions and millions of citizens, making Jesus come in on a second place and causing an entire industry to boom every year again. On a side note, Christmas is starting more early every year. I noticed some shops putting up the theme decoration already two weeks ago, somewhere halfway November. Pretty impressive. I bet we’ll celebrate Easter in February soon.
Can somebody tell me what ever happened to Spriteboy?
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More info at Coca-Cola
via Advertising is good for you | AdFreak