Mac Finley's Holiday 2011 Ad Wrap Up
Everyone knows that “Santa Claus” began in fourth century Greece where the story of Saint Nicholas was born. Everyone knows this right? Well Saint Nicholas of Myra (which is now part of Turkey), is the primary inspiration for the man who would come to be known as Santa Claus. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor and was a religious man who devoted his entire life to Christianity. And looked like this.
Centuries later people started comparing this St. Nick to Odin, a Germanic God. He had a beard a hat, and he had a horse named Sleipner that could fly. He would lead the yearly Yule hunt and children would leave their boots out filled with carrots and sugar for the horse, and in return Odin would thank them with gifts in replace of them. That's right, Odin would put gifts in the children's boots. Marvel Comics made Odin out to be the Father of Thor, and you may know him portrayed by the great Anthony Hopkins in the movie "Thor". This is Odin.
It wasn’t until the 17th century that this "boots left out for for Odin thing" caught on, and stockings began being placed by fireplaces in America.
Then came Sinterklass,
which led way to Father Christmas in his Green Robe, And then in 1823 “A Visit from St. Nicholas” or as we know it now, The Night Before Christmas was written by Clement Clarke. But the pictures in the book were small and black and white and Santa was known as a Jolly old Elf. It wasn’t until 1863 when Thomas Nast started drawing his depiction of Santa Claus for Harpers Weekly. A small fat sailor with a pipe and a beard. Many think Coke was the first company to begin branding Santa to sell products, however it was White Rock beverages who used Santa to sell Mineral water and Ginger ale starting in 1915,
In the 1920’s and in color, Coke begin to make adds that depicted the Santa we all know and love today. In my opinion, coke saw a great idea, and made it better. Coke is even credited with giving Santa the Red Robe. the D'Arcy Advertising Agency working with The Coca-Cola Company, wanted the next campaign to show a wholesome Santa as both realistic and symbolic. In 1931, The Coca-Cola Company commissioned Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop advertising images using Santa Claus. Sundblom got his inspiration from Clement’s poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” . From 1931 to 1964, Sundblom continued to create paintings of Santa for Coke, and these images became engraved in the world.
When you think of Santa, the Image you think of, without even knowing it, is most likely an image from Coke. Santa throughout the years has been used to sell many things, from cigarettes to soap.
Now here we are in 2011, and the some companies once again took Santa Claus on a sleigh ride to sell their products. The ones we are going to look at are Apple, Chevy, Best Buy and of course, Coca Cola. Let’s start right off the bat, with Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the ad company that brought you “Game On Santa” Best Buy adds. All over the internet are mixed reviews, and by mixed I mean a good 80% dislike this campaign for all sorts of reasons. Have a look.
The biggest reason seemingly is that they chose to air this add during a time when most kids are awake and watching TV. Here is mom and dad, demeaning Santa, and making him feel bad, and kicking Santa Items off roofs, and just being jerks really. There is one ad where Santa shows up happy, starts to laugh with mom, and then realizes he’s being threatened. Now personally, what I think, is that they were going for a sort of playful tease back and forth between parents and Santa. I don’t believe they meant to actually demean Santa this year, I just think the writing, directing and interpretation of the copy was slightly off. And I say this because of the Verizon Game On Commercial.
This one is light hearted, and clearly the mom is playing a joke with Santa. Santa still gets to leave his gifts, but there is a phone on the tree, egging him on to see if he can beat that gift. The other commercials all have the tone of, “I already got a bunch of gifts” , I did your Job, Your fired Santa, your lame. I feel with some change in inflection and tone, you could take the same scripts and make them a bit more joyful and still hold on to that Christmas Spirit that makes you want to go out and buy something for your kids. But I really feel that Crispin Porter and Bogusky really missed the Christmas mark here on this campaign, unless however their plan was to cause an uproar on the web. The actor playing Santa was okay. Definitely not the best Santa this year, his look was on, but there was an unnecessary amount of ho ho’s in the beginning of some adds, and since you look like Santa you don’t necessarily need to "ho ho" all the time to drive the point home, it loses some of its realism, especially if your ho hoing while placing presents when your suppose to be quiet.
Now Apple’s ad this holiday features Santa finding his way using Siri, the new feature on iPhone 4s.
If you notice, the name of the product or Siri isn’t even said during the ad. But everyone knows what it’s selling. Friggin brilliant. Viewer reactions over at Ace Metrix claim this to be the most effective Holiday advertising of 2011. I’m not going to argue, it may very well have been the most effective. For me, it was one of the best looking and sounding Santa’s this year. The artistic direction was fantastic, every shot was beautiful, and I loved that we didn’t see all of Santa, just his mouth and beard. Focus was driven to the iPhone in every scene. One of the oldest jolliest men, using some of the newest technology. Hits all levels of the Holiday shopping spirits. Now was this my favorite commercial this year, no. But it sure was one of the most well done ones.
Chevy had a slew of commercials, from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, I think, because when I search for the ad company for these ad’s I get nothing, these Holiday ads are based around Santa’s “other job” selling Chevy Trucks. This campaign goes hand in hand with a common ad strategy, Take a good idea, and run with it. You can find it recently with Best Buy, Target, T-Mobile etc..They feel if they make a bunch of them they are bound to get a few good commercials out of it. And I feel they did. But only two…maybe three if we stretch. It’s a perfect example of the “too far” syndrome or the more recent SNL “I don’t know when to stop the joke” syndrome. Now I guess the idea here, is to make a lot of variations on a great idea, film them all, and we are bound to get a good one or two. Chevy did in fact get two fantastic ads with this method. The Santa Beard,
First off, a great Santa choice, perfect size, looks very real. Reactions of the people are very genuine, casting was spot on. Woman is hilarious and has fantastic comedic timing, as does Santa. I like how they get the “savings” point across before the comedy ensues. You hear the facts, you laugh and relate, you hear another set of facts, and you laugh more, and then the punch at the end. Well done.
The hunting commercial is another win.
Another short & sweet spot with great comedic timing. These two hit the nail on the head. The others however, not so much. Especially the Santa cookies one, far too predictable and cheesy.
A Santa fail.
Coca Cola has been in this ad campaign ring for a long time and they take home the gold with their Shake Up the happiness campaign and their Santa. My favorite by far this season is the “toys” commercial.
I love the idea of Santa in his workshop with the snow globes, and each globe is a city in the world. The thinkers over at Wieden + Kennedy hit another one right on the head, but I expect that after bringing us the fantastic Old Spice, Dodge, and Target commercials this year. This commercial with the boys playing their handheld games outside by themselves, really hits another nice reminder for the holidays. Inspire your kids to play together, buy those gifts that force, not so much force but ENCOURAGE interaction! And the Santa for Coca Cola is by far my favorite of the season. I expect nothing less from Coca Cola!
Now whether you think the iconic image of Santa should be left alone, or toyed with, is all up to you. But he’s been used to sell happiness, toys and many other things throughout the years and when it comes down to it, it’s nice to see him on the TV in December. Wouldn’t be the most wonderful time of the year without him. What matters is, what happens when you do see him. I’d rather not see Santa showing signs of his age, I’d rather not see Santa being teased, but I do want to see him happy and doing his Santa thing.
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Be Wonderful
~Mac Finley