Are we doing Christmas Avatars again?

[Skanky Burns]

If you want a Christmas without snow, try Australia.
It will be the middle of summer.

[Chilean Presidentâ„¢]

here too obviously... a nice sunny Christmas

[Dauphin]

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

Claim: The modern image of Santa Claus — a jolly figure in a red-and-white suit — was created by Coca-Cola.

Status: False.

..........................

All this isn't to say that Coca-Cola didn't have anything to do with cementing that image of Santa Claus in the public consciousness. The Santa image may have been standardized before Coca-Cola adopted it for their advertisements, but Coca-Cola had a great deal to do with establishing Santa Claus as a ubiquitous Christmas figure in America at a time when the holiday was still making the transition from a religious observance to a largely secular and highly commercial celebration. In an era before color television (or commercial television of any kind), color films, and the widespread use of color in newspapers, it was Coca-Cola's magazine advertisements, billboards, and point-of-sale store displays that exposed nearly everyone in America to the modern Santa Claus image. Coca-Cola certainly helped make Santa Claus one of the most popular men in America, but they didn't invent him. .

[Chilean Presidentâ„¢]

No one is saying that Coca Cola invented Santa Claus (aka Viejito Pascuero in Chilean), but they did change the original green color... as far as I know it was green the original, but I could be wrong, anyway, Coke's put him the red suit

http://www.historytelevision.ca/archives/christmas/santa/

Coca-Cola gave Santa Claus high exposure and cemented the modern image of Santa with their advertising campaign designed to increase sales over the winter that spanned 20 years. Beginning in 1930, Haddon Sundblom was commissioned to create a series of oil paintings for the company. Although Santa had appeared in many colours - brown and blue - the obvious choice was keep Santa in Coke's corporate colours of red and white as designated by Nast.

[Dauphin]

From the above link

Although some versions of the Santa Claus figure still had him attired in various colors of outfits past the beginning of the 20th century, the jolly, ruddy, sack-carrying Santa with a red suit and flowing white whiskers had become the standard image of Santa Claus by the 1920s, several years before Sundlom drew his first Santa illustration for Coca-Cola. As The New York Times reported on 27 November 1927:

A standardized Santa Claus appears to New York children. Height, weight, stature are almost exactly standardized, as are the red garments, the hood and the white whiskers. The pack full of toys, ruddy cheeks and nose, bushy eyebrows and a jolly, paunchy effect are also inevitable parts of the requisite make-up.

[Chilean Presidentâ„¢]

Damn! I didn't read that... oh well, anyway is the Coca Cola Holyday

[Adagio]

Maybe it wasn't Coca Cola who gave him the red color, but it was Coca Cola who made it standard AFAIK

[Dauphin]

Read the link.

Coca-Cola didn't make santa what he is, but they put him into the public consciousness (and hence the strong but erroneous association between Coca-Cola inventing him/influencing his current image/standardising his image/whatever you want to call it) and hastened Christmas' transformation into a secular holiday..

[Ming]

While I already have my Ming Christmas Avatar, I could use some help with the avatar I use on some other sites. Any help would be appreciated

[Method]

curses. seems i've killed last year's christmas avatar. ah well....would it be too much trouble to put a hat on erm?

[FlameFlash]

xmas lights... that's what would work... though I can't edit .gif and keep the motion...

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Ming
While I already have my Ming Christmas Avatar, I could use some help with the avatar I use on some other sites. Any help would be appreciated

I didn't know there were sites for draconian advertising executives from suburban Chicago

Asmodean

[Ben Kenobi]

There are...

He may be Ming to us, but over there he's just Kermit the Frog. Make you wonder who would qualify to be the moderators.

[Donegeal]

Hmmm... which do you guys like beter? My current one or the one I had last year with the Iwa Jima Marines all wearing hats (can't find the pic)?

[Edit] Avatars seem to be on/off all the time [/Edit]

[Zopperoni]

Originally posted by Ming
While I already have my Ming Christmas Avatar, I could use some help with the avatar I use on some other sites. Any help would be appreciated

The lack of forehead does make it look kind of weird: