There’s a problem here, and it’s not an easy one to solve. Santa Clause is recognized as a fictional character, or, more precisely, is not recognized as a real person, by the United States Copyright Office. Therefore, unless you duplicate the copyrighted version of Santa that CocaCola designed some 75 years ago, he can work for you to sell anything you want! Through the decades, advertisers invented often disturbing, certainly insulting ways of exploiting Saint Nick as their seasonal go-to guy for shilling just about every product and service imaginable. Such irresponsible advertising surely had consequences on children whose innocent visions of Santa were continually challenged.
Seven-year-old Annabelle walked through the living room and glanced at the back cover of her father’s “Field and Stream” that sat on the edge of the coffee table. She stopped, looked closer, and was shocked at the sight of Santa drinking the same funny-smelling juice that makes her daddy boil with rage, throw his shoes at the news reporter on the TV, and curse in his sleep. Annabelle was lost as she tried to decide whether her discovery made daddy’s actions acceptable, or Santa’s actions objectionable. Certainly these two worlds could not exist within such a small universe. She picked up the magazine and thought about asking daddy about the ad, but remembered that by this point of the evening he’s halfway through another bottle and she could already hear Walter Cronkite’s voice escaping from the den. Her mom would have an answer, and luckily she was easy to find. Annabelle followed the pungent scent of Chesterfields to the small parlor off the kitchen. She could hear the “chink” of her mom’s cigarette lighter from the hallway, and as she approached the parlor, the air grew thick and grey.
[continued tomorrow]
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