Valeria Maltoni: Coca Cola The Tale of Two Christmas Stories

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to hit the 1,000 comment mark on this blog. Valeria Maltoni was that lucky soul and as a bonus to her, I asked her if she would like to do a guest post on this blog. She accepted and it fits in great with the Christmas holiday and marketing in general.

Without further ado, here it is, enjoy and have a happy holiday!

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You might think that Christmas was invented by Italians -- green, white, and red (the colors of Italy's national flag) are the traditional Christmas colors as well. One widely held theory is that the holiday was an intentional christianization of Saturnalia, a winter solstice celebration.

In the third and fourth centuries, the church in Rome found itself in fierce competition with popular pagan religions and mystery cults, most of them involving sun worship. From the middle of December through the first of January, Romans would engage in feasts and drunken revelry, paying homage to their gods and marking the winter solstice, when days began to lengthen.

It was the Emperor Aurelian that decreed December 25, then the solstice on the Julian calendar -- as birth of the invincible sun god Mithras in A.D. 273. In designating December 25 as the date for their Nativity feast Rome's Christians challenged paganism directly.

As Tim Manners summarized last December with Coca-Claus in Reveries, Coke's ties with Santa can be traced back to American Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast, who drew him for Harper's Weekly in 1862. That Santa was small and his suit was tan. The suit color was later changed to red, and Coke finally debuted its new cheerful Christmas Santa in 1931.

Of all the Coca Cola Christmas ads I have seen so far this year, two stand out for different reasons. Let's take a look at the fist one, which is a version for Northern Ireland:

What's the story about? A little girl's life through the years. Bonus big emotional kick at the end.

Now let's take a look at the second Coca Cola ad:

What do you notice? Brand worship. Clearly this ad also cost to produce. Which one would make you open your wallet more readily? Most importantly, which builds a relationship with the product? The story is not about how great Coca Cola is. The story is how savoring a nice bottle of Coca Cola -- its consistent taste and visual presence throughout your life -- brings back those memories. The customer is the story.

Which is your favorite? Vote in the comments.

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Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer, Valeria Maltoni, Christmas

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Merry Christmas to you and all Techno//Marketer readers, friends and family. Despite having watched the ads before, I still enjoyed watching them again and showing them to my family. They tell me the Irish one is also broadcast here in Italy -- full circle ;-)

[Matt Dickman]

Valeria -- Thanks again for being so generous and allowing my readers to get first crack at reading this. I hope you have a wonderful time in Italy with your family.

[Steve Woodruff]

A little late on this one, but I prefer the first ad...by far!