Green Light Pharmacy Blog ... December 07

Christmas in the Pharmacy ... and how a pharmacist lead to the santa we know today.

John Pemberton was a pharmacist in Atlanta Georgia, who made and sold patent medicines. One of Pemberton's biggest selling items was "French Wine of Coca" which was a Bordeaux wine with cocaine (which at the time was not thought of as harmful) added, as a cure for nervous disorders, disturbances of internal plumbing, and impotency.

Atlanta voted to become a dry city in July 1886, so Pemberton began experimenting to remove the wine and on May the 7th, 1886 in a laboratory in his house in Georgia, Mr. Pemberton created the syrup that became Coca-Cola. The first sales were made at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, in May 1886.

Originally the whole purpose of the beverage was medicinal. If you were feeling "low" or if you suffered from headaches, a Coke was the perfect remedy. In fact, Coca-Cola paid pharmacists a commission for the sale of this medicinal beverage if drug stores allowed Coca-Cola to install a carbonation tap on the premises. The cocaine was removed in the early 1900's.

By the 1930's, Coca-Cola needed to boost it's sales in a Depression Era, especially in the winter months. So, in 1931, Coca-Cola changed its target audience to the whole family who required cheer and joy, and launched an extensive advertising campaign to demonstrate its new appeal. The company blitzed pharmacies and stores with promotional material and advertisements. The advertisement illustrations of one artist in particular, a Swede called Haddon Sundblom, gave Coca-Cola the most success.

Haddon Sundblom's ads featured a new looking Santa Claus. The history of Santa Claus, the mystery gift-giver, goes back well before the time of the Coca-Cola company, such as St. Nicholas, loosely based on the fourth-century bishop of Turkey. But before the Coca-Cola Company Santa was often depicted wearing blue, and he was usually tall and gaunt. Haddon's illustrations always depicted Santa Claus as fat and jolly with the red suit and cap, thick black belt and black boots.

As Santa brings gifts to all little boys and girls, as long as they are good, it was an image Coca-Cola wished to persue. Haddon Sundblom's image of Santa Claus hit the right buttons in terms of stirring the hearts and quenching the thirst, prompting Coca-Cola to hire Sundblom to make Coke ads for the next 35 years.

Coca-Cola even patented a formula for the red used for Coke packaging and for Santa's suit. Any of the artists hired to work for Coca-Cola were required to use this color red so leading to a constant association between red and Coke and Santa.

Before the Sundblom advertisements, the Christmas saint had been variously illustrated wearing blue, yellow, green, or red.... After the soft drink ads, Santa would forever more be a huge, fat, relentlessly happy man with broad belt and black hip boots wearing a Coca-Cola red outfit .... it has directly shaped the way we think of Santa, and remember a pharmacist invented Coca-cola.

Green Light Pharmacy...

Wishes it customers and patients a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .... just watch the Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure and Atherosclerosis over Christmas and the New Year, and come and see us about your New Year's resolutions - like Quitting Smoking. Maybe start the new year on a good foot with a Medicines Use Review.

All the best for 2008...