I thought of this the other day. I began to imagine, could somebody physically do it? Could somebody change the face of Christmas forever? The whole sha-bang. I’m not thinking about taking this lightly. I mean big business, just think mega-corporate makeover and times it by ten. No more big red suits, white beards, sleighs, trees, outrageously big nosed reindeers and all the other rubbish that comes with the seasonal holiday.

So, we’ll begin by having a makeover done on Mr Christmas himself. No, not Cliff Richard. I’m talking about The Big Man, St Nick. Sir Nicholas ‘Santa’ Claus MBE. Now, you can’t get rid of him, he’s an institution of Christmas. He stays, but a bit of makeover is required. Let’s sort the hat out, give him a beard trim and get him on a treadmill. Great, who’s next?

I’m not really going to go through every single Christmas character I can think of, but let’s just say some of them lost their jobs in the ‘rebranding’. 

I jest.

But in all seriousness, will Christmas ever change? I mean, it probably has over the past 100 years or so with folklore and stories being passed down from generation to generation, but I guess the traditions are very much the same and the idea of exchanging gifts is still central to the idea of Christmas. But whether you believe in what happened 2011 years ago on 25th December or you just like getting shed loads of toys and stuff, Christmas is still a great time to get together and share time with each other. These values are still important in that respect and they’ll probably never change, so we’ll have to take them forward in our branding project.

Will it always be about green trees, stars, reindeers etc etc or will somebody decide that, hey, Santa is going to be a 32 year old brunette woman from Newport in swimming shorts and a bow tie from now on. Maybe not, but if it’s been done before, it can surely happen again? Isn’t that right, Coca Cola.

Quote:

‘Most people can agree on what Santa Claus looks like – jolly, with a red suit and a white beard. But he did not always look that way, and Coca-Cola® advertising actually helped shape this modern-day image of Santa’

Yep. That’s right, you’re keen jolly all round good guy was branded by a huge sugary water based drinks company back in 1931. So much for donkeys and stables eh?

They even commissioned an artist.

‘Before the introduction of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus created by artist Haddon Sundblom, the image of Santa ranged from big to small and fat to tall. Santa even appeared as an elf and looked a bit spooky. Through the centuries, Santa Claus has been depicted as everything from a tall gaunt man to an elf. He has worn a bishop’s robe and a Norse huntsman’s animal skin.’

It goes on to read that, ‘The modern-day Santa Claus is a combination of a number of the stories from a variety of countries.’ 

So, maybe there is hope for changing the big man himself one day. But could we? Would that be like changing the Nike logo? People would feint over that one. Surely they would too if Big Nick turned into a scrawny elf over night. Maybe there is hope. Instead of a rebrand, maybe we should commission a visual identity for Christmas. Like a universally recognized logo or symbol, like the red cross or WWF. That would be fun. But it would be a nightmare to sign-off. Billions of people vying for an input (convincing a panel of 3 people is sometimes hard enough).

So, when you’re enjoying Christmas this year, think about what it means and what you may like it to look like in your ideal world. Maybe it’s the same merry and bright Christmas we all know and love? But just remember, it was Coca Cola who ‘created’ it…

Either way, have a good one and roll on January*…

Stuart

If you’d like to know more about ‘the real’ Christmas then click here.

*Just in case sarcasm wasn’t detected, that was a joke. I hate January.

Author Stuart
Date 23.12.11
Time 16.21
Comments 3