Picker-Rick t1_j2a8y7q wrote on December 30, 2022 at 7:47 PM

Reply to comment by view-master in TIL that the narrative that Coca-Cola designed the modern Santa Claus as part of an advertising campaign is not true, because Coca-Cola did start using Santa in advertising in 1933. But Santa had been portrayed almost exclusively in red from the early 19th century by giuliomagnifico

I would say that boy's life looks very similar. Probably 90% of the way there.

Which is why I say that it's mostly a myth that coke created santa.

But, the differences are pretty important. The coke center has the giant thick conveyor belt, the boys life has a regular belt. The BL has some kind of fencing gauntlets? And the coke Santa has the trademark white trim on his sleeves. The BL Santa looks pretty average sized overall, but the coke Santa is the massively obese jelly bellied Santa...

And those small differences have really become characteristic. What I mean is that if you ask somebody to describe or draw Santa 90 years later, it's going to have those characteristics of the coke Santa.

And while there have been plenty of changes throughout the centuries, some big some small it really hasn't been any change in Santa since 1931.

So the reason it's not a total myth is that they did cement the characteristics and refined the image of the modern Santa.

Though I wouldn't be surprised if he looked completely different than another 100 years.