Michael Bissell
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Contact me

Pepsi Steals Christmas

September 21, 2011

As Coke finds a way of telling us every Christmas, they invented the modern Santa Claus. Starting in 1931, magazine ads for Coca-Cola featured St. Nick as a kind, jolly man in a red suit -- bright ads in an early era of high-resolution, color printing that didn't just co-opt Santa, but defined him through advertising.

It's not like Coke owns Santa, but in the soft drink biz, Santa = Coca Cola. Until now…

Pepsi started running an ad a couple months ago featuring Mr. and Mrs. Claus dancing on a beach with some elves and the standard collection of beautiful people who always attend these beach parties. He goes up to the bar to order a drink and refuses the two Cokes. 'I thought you had a deal with… um… you know.'

You'd think Santa was ordering Pepsi with a double shot of rum in it from the shifty way he says, 'I'm on vacation! I want to have some fu-u-u-un.' And the elves saying, 'Naughty!' 'Nice!' when they see what Santa is drinking just adds to the idea of the forbidden fruit syrup.

It's a cool, refreshing co-opting the Classic Coke Santa. Well, not that cool or refreshing, but it is a smooth play by Pepsi to erode an 80 year old icon of their biggest competitor.

But then there's the polar bear family. Santa belongs to everyone (except the Jehovah Witnesses who don't want him anyhow), but Coke has this other recurring Christmas ad -- a family of computer generated polar bears who enjoy the season with a Coke… Only Uncle Teddy comes to visit during the summer and the family throws away the bottles of Coke.

  

Here are the ads, in case you need to see more soda commercials in your day:

  

⟪ Netflix and @Qwikster | Shanzhai -- The Ancient Chinese Art of Brand Identity Theft ⟫


REAL RESUME FEEDBACK FROM REAL RECRUITERS
Your resume is your most valuable tool in your job search. But how do you know your resume is in top shape?

Our recruiters will review your resume line by line and give you detailed feedback on how you can improve it.

Visit mjlprojects.com to learn more!

Resume

  • My Resume
  • MJL Projects
  • NWEA Experience
  • Apigee Experience
  • Cloudentity Experience
  • Conquent Experience
  • Technical Skills
  • Presentation and Voice
  • API Standards
  • Podcasts

Articles

© Michael Bissell. All rights reserved.