did coca cola invent santa's image?

Answer 1

Before Coca-Cola there was an image of Santa Claus in folklore, but there was not a standardized image of what Santa looked like. For an advertising campaign Coke hired an artist to portray Santa in a way that could be used to sell their product. This artist based his image of Santa on himself and thus was born the American concept of Santa's image. So they did not invent Santa as a character, but rather standardized his image for the American popular culture.

Answer 2

Santa Claus as a mythical figure has been around for a long time, as Father Christmas in the Engllish culture, Kris Kringle in Germany, and Pere Noel in France, etc. Up until the late 1930's, though, he was always portrayed as a tall, thin, stern-looking man, the kind of guy you'd be afraid of if you had been a bad kid that year. However, in the 30's, a man named Clement C. Moore wrote the beloved poem A Visit from Santa Claus ('Twas the night before Christmas...) and for the first time ever, Santa was thought of as a round, jolly fellow with rosy cheeks and reindeer. The Coca-Cola company took this image of Santa from the poem and created what is now the popular depiction of Santa on their Coke bottles. They were the first ones to draw him that way, but Clement C. Moore was the first person to think of him that way.

Answer 3

I think Santa invented Coca Colas image. What happened Santa got hooked on Coca Cola back when it had Cocaine in it. He was buying that stuff left and right. Well, little children who caught sight of Santa drinking Coke started drinking it too, increasing Coca Colas sales. But, also increasing dependence on Cocaine. In time Coca Cola seen this problem and slowly removed the Cocaine by lowering the content and thus weaning people from their addiction. But, by this time they had become Coca Cola oriented and bought Coca Cola out of compulsion. Sort of like what happened with McDonald's.

Answer 4

Nope, the original image of Santa is based off of a softer image of Odin who would travel out on the Winter Solstice and bring a gift to the faithful followers. This is also most likely where the reindeer came from although Odin usually rode an eight legged horse.

Answer 5

Santa has been around for a loooooooooooooong time, much longer than Coca-Cola. In fact, the inspiration for Santa comes from Saint Nicholas, a bishop from Turkey (then known as Myra), who gave presents to the poor. His charity became legend when a man lost his fortune and found himself incapable of supporting his three daughters, who would not be able to find husbands as they lacked dowries. This man was going to give them over to a life of prostitution; however, St. Nicholas provided them with gold, enabling them to retain their virginal virtues and marry.

This in turn inspired the mythical figure of Sinterklaas, the subject of a major celebration in the Netherlands and Belgium, Germany (where his alleged date of death, December 6, is celebrated the evening before on December 5), which in turn inspired both the myth and the name of Santa Claus (actually a mispronunciation of the Dutch word "Sinterklaas" by the English settlers of New Amsterdam (later renamed New York). Whilst in those countries Saint Nicholas is celebrated as a distinct character with a religious touch, Santa Claus is also making inroads as a symbol during Christmas.

Over the centuries, there have been many representations of the jolly old elf, but it was the work of one Thomas Nast, a caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who was, at the time, doing some work for Harper's Weekly. The illustration that he supplied became the baseline for the modern-day Santa Claus that we have come to know and love. Though not widely known, Nast also originated the illustrations of the elephant and donkey used by the Republican and Democratic parties (respectively), Lady Columbia, England's John Bull, and Uncle Sam.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the burgeoning Coca-Cola company was still looking for ways to increase sales of their product during winter, then a slow time of year for the soft drink market. They turned to a talented commercial illustrator named Haddon Sundblom, who created a series of memorable drawings that associated the figure of a larger than life, red-and-white garbed Santa Claus with Coca-Cola. Coke's annual advertisements — featuring Sundblom-drawn Santas holding bottles of Coca-Cola, drinking Coca-Cola, receiving Coca-Cola as gifts, and especially enjoying Coca-Cola — became a perennial Christmastime feature which helped spur Coca-Cola sales throughout the winter (and produced the bonus effect of appealing quite strongly to children, an important segment of the soft drink market). The success of this advertising campaign has helped fuel the legend that Coca-Cola actually invented the image of the modern Santa Claus, decking him out in a red-and-white suit to promote the company colors — or that at the very least, Coca-Cola chose to promote the red-and-white version of Santa Claus over a variety of competing Santa figures in order to establish it as the accepted image of Santa Claus.

This legend is not true. Although some versions of the Santa Claus figure still had him attired in various colors of outfits past the beginning of the 20th century, the jolly, ruddy, sack-carrying Santa with a red suit and flowing white whiskers had become the standard image of Santa Claus by the 1920s, several years before Sundlom drew his first Santa illustration for Coca-Cola.

Coke has been with us for only about 120 years. Santa has been around far longer.

Answer 6

well they pretty much claim to. I went to their big tour in Atlanta and there is a whole section about how their advertising actually popularized the picture of Santa Claus we have in America... the big fat jolly man in the suit with the big belt buckle and huge white beard... before coke there were lots of different ideas of Santa Claus, just look in Europe they have drastically different ideas and picture of what Santa looks like, but after coke's very successful commercials America now has one very distinct view of what Santa should look like.

Answer 7

no santa was a real man but the image as we see today is a 20 century image he really did help children get presents through a chimney but the sleigh and stuff is a recent addiction look in europe how they look at santa then you know how old it really is

Answer 8

No, the image is based on "The Night Before Christmas" poem. The true perpetrators are most like Hallmark greetings cards. They are the ones who turned Valentine's day into a holiday.

Answer 9

no Thomas Nast developed the more popular image of Santa Claus as we know him today. Mr. Nast was a famous cartoonist and if my memory serves me right he was employed by The Saturday Evening Post.

Answer 10

They invented the red suit. Prior to that, St Nicholas was dressed in winter outerwear common for the time.