Monday, December 16, 2013

Should Santa be drinking Diet Coke?

As we all know, 'tis the season of good cheer. So I want to talk to you about Santa Claus.

Let me begin by telling you that this charming mythical spirit of giving has been around longer than Fox's Megyn Kelly.  Megyn, who happens to be blonde and beardless with color-coordinated white skin as further stark evidence of her bona fides, bestirred the Santa Claus universe by insisting that he is...um...white. Contrary to much of Fox's  credentialed  hysteria these days, white, brown , middlin' has never been much of a problem for the rest of us. In fact, as a child, I forever wondered  why the rotund old guy's face,  given his mission, wasn't smudged with soot.

Megyn,  for more than one reason, deserved not only a ho-ho-ho but a Grumpy hurrummphhh!!!.

The jovial rosy-cheeked and white-bearded icon was around long before Megyn got to know him and will remain that way long after  she is exhausted by her protests that she is not, by God,  a  racist, Fox or no Fox!

Indeed, the Coca-Cola Santa that we all know and usually love was introduced in 1931 to assure us that the soda was the "pause that refreshes".  It has remained so ever since to become familiar to every sane person who has come to know him. The artist was Haddon Sundblom, who was hired for this advertising task and created many others of his jolly countenance.  (We show his first one of Santa.)

But about Santa's obesity.  It does occur to me that perhaps a skinny Coca-Cola Santa could be more appropriate in the company's pitches for, say...,Diet Coke. I mean, such a healthful initiative (except for maybe Rush Limbaugh, the GOP's big white whale),  has some potential as a contemporary ad, wouldn't you think? As the saying goes, we report, you decide.

Ho-ho-ho.





 


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