Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Santa Claus in La Paz

There are many fun parts to travelling. One relevant in this space is how being in a different place changes how we see ads like the one below.

While visiting La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, this past November we came across this Coca-Cola ad using the famous Santa Claus and the wonderful line, "Together we make magic reality."

There are so many interesting layers to this photo:

  • A Coca-Cola ad featuring Santa on a snowy, starry night backdrop the Southern hemisphere in November (that's spring heading for summer)
  • Santa as spokesperson for Coca-Cola (who else does pull this off?)
  • That jolly big man drinking his Coca-Cola
  • The Santa image, it is said, has been shaped significantly by Coca-Cola advertising going back to1931
  • A Coca-Cola ad in Bolivia where Coca leaves are a large crop some destined for traditional uses and some for let's call it "export"and that doesn't even have anything to do with the Coca-Cola formula
  • The statue in the foreground is of Simon Bolivar, Liberator of Bolivia from colonial (Spanish) rule, August 6, 1825.



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