Santa Claus has become the face of Christmas. There is no way you'd speak of Christmas or Santa without associating each to the other. The day filled with joy, celebration and giving, all mediated through the jolly ol' chubby red Santa.
The legendary figure is a traditional patron of Christmas in almost all corners of the world, bringing gifts to children. Also known as Father Christmas in many Eastern European countries, the figure is commonly believed to be based on St. Nicholas, a Christian saint of the fourth century.
However, the modern image of Santa isn't as accurate as it was meant to be. The original credit is usually given to the Dutch that migrated the idea of Santa to the States. A cartoonist in the mid 1800s is credit to give him the image Santa has. Poetry in the 1800s also carry a lot of credit into normalizing the figure and his role in today's age.
But the biggest credit goes to the marketing genius of all times - Coca-Cola. They had, in modern times, first coined and popularized the brilliant red, jolly and overly expressive Santa.
Do you see the resemblance? Coca-Cola and Santa. You might.
The Coca-Cola marketing team has always been in their top game ever since the beginning. The joyful polar bears, the penguins and even Santa.
Taking advantage of the giving nature of Santa, and the appeal it has to children, they had chosen the right legendary figure to further their reach. With this genius move they had taken over a whole holiday for themselves, as well as appealed to children and families together.
If you are an 80's or 90's kid, you will remember the Coca-cola posters with Santa holding coke bottles...and those were the only Santa posters, back then.
But the multi-million dollar company's slate is not as clean as they drive to make it to be. Behind the jolly image they portray with their wonderful ads, lie a deep and dark outspoken secret.
The company has been accused and at times proved to be absolutely careless about the environment and local community when it comes to bottling water. They need plenty of water to fill the extraordinarily high production rate of coke.
This leads to drought, devastation of agriculture, destruction of micro-climates and a huge demand of never-filling of clean water.
So, maybe if I get to be Santa for day, and I had the power to bring to life one wish from one person, I'd probably fulfill the wish of a thirsty farmer sitting at the edge of his dried well looking over an empty dry field that once grew fresh produce.
I would once again fill up the wells and rivers with clean water. Think of it as a way to say thank you to them for bringing my image, as Santa, to life through Coca-cola.