Santa Claus conquers the Axis

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Santa Claus was busy during World War II, mostly beating the crap out of enemy leaders portrayed as various stereotypes. (Hirohito getting particularly vicious treatment.)

Via

Merry Christmas, readers.

The "good old days" when Santa sold smokes

The Guardian reported last October that a new edition of Clement C Moore's 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, which is widely attributed with popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus, has censored all references to the visitor's pipe:

"The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, 

And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath"

Canadian publisher Pamela McColl released the bowdlerized poem through her own company, Grafton and Scratch.

Ms. McColl explains:

"I have edited out a few words and lines that reference Santa smoking and removed the cover illustration of his pipe. The omission of these few words do not change the material intent of the author nor do they infringe on the reader's understanding or enjoyment of this historically-rich story, but by removing these words we may save lives and avoid influencing new smokers," she says. "I think these edits outweigh other considerations. If this text is to survive another 200 years it needs to modernise and reflect today's realities. I want children to celebrate the spirit of giving and to reflect proudly on the holiday traditions that shape their childhood, and the best way to honour Santa and this story is to make him smoke-free."

When my parents were kids, Santa didn't just smoke a pipe. Through the magic of big tobacco advertising, he also enjoyed promoting several brands of cigarettes:

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I'd just like to add that I totally disagree with what Pamela McColl did to the old poem. 

I am also very much anti-smoking, but I am also anti-censorship. Old works are expressions of their time, and they provide an opportunity to talk with kids about why certain things were considered okay in the past, and why they are not now. In my opinion, this helps prepare kids for a world in which "normal" is a constantly moving target. By sheltering them, you only make them believe that the world was always as it is now. And how are they supposed to cope with change then?

F'd Ad Fridays: What to do if Santa comes too soon

AdFreak posted this ad promoting the morning after pill as a seasonal thing. Seems a little not-so-jolly to me, making emergency contraception festive.

And BPAS, "the UK's leading abortion specialist", wants women to get their oops pills in advance just in case they have unsafe sex over the holidays.

It's a little weird. They do give the disclaimer, "The ‘morning after pill‘ should only be considered an emergency form of contraception, other, more effective forms of contraception are available" but it still feels like they're completely ignoring the whole STI issue.

Pepsi steals away Coke's most famous spokesperson

Michael? Oh wait, he's dead.

Britney? Naw, she was fired.

They went after Santa:



As #2, Pepsi has a history of implying that Coke truck drivers, etc., would switch to Pepsi if they could. But is this shot at Coke's most famous imaginary icon warranted?

All's fair in love and cola wars, I guess.

Via MTLB.

Why do ad agency xmas cards usually suck?

The clichéd answer is because we're our own worst clients.

But I think this year's lighthearted effort has managed to break the Curse of the Agency Card. All it took is for us to step back and take a hard look at how ridiculous our industry can be — and then let off steam through the magic of satire. Focus groups, memes, sexism, fads, personal agendas... we all deal with them. But at the end of the day, sometimes a simple idea is really worth saving.



I wrote the script. Christopher directed the voices. Kerry and Marco did the animation. Vernon, John, Lynn, Jason, Meeta and many others kicked in. And Al let us do it.

Merry Christmas to those of you on an early vacation. I'll be updating all next week.