I came across an article published in The Boston Phoenix a few years back and it's too good not to share. The author explains how fat, jolly, red-suited Santa is actually the invented lead character in a Coca-Cola advertising campaign.
Here's a snippet:
By the 1930s, Coca-Cola needed to re-evaluate its business plan. The more controversial aspects of the beverage had long been dealt with (as early as 1903, coca-bean extract was removed and caffeine took its place), but it was the Depression; beverage sales were slow -- especially in the wintry months -- and Coca-Cola needed a new hook and line to attract the American market.
So, in 1931, Coca-Cola changed its target audience: from the adult looking for a pharmaceutical pick-me-up to the whole family. Coca-Cola was now a great taste to be enjoyed by everyone! To bring the point home, the company launched an extensive advertising campaign that pioneered the use of well-known artists as ad designers. Coca-Cola blitzed pharmacies and stores with promotional material suitable for the whole family.
The most successful illustrations were by a Swedish artist named Haddon Sundblom, whose work depicted a portly white man in a red suit bringing joy to family and friends with a bottle of Coke. The figure in the illustrations was the first modern Santa.
The "historical" origins of Santa obviously predate Coke's ad campaign by several centuries, but it's interesting that the Santa persona we're all most familiar with is basically an embodied soda commercial.
Here are a few other merry tidbits:
Why do we decorate our homes with lights during the holidays? Thank Thomas Edison's business partner.
Would you kiss someone beneath dung on a twig?
Was the candy cane invented, as the legend goes, by a candy maker in Indiana with a preference for the letter "J"? Snopes says Nope.
