Haddon Sundblom painted Coca-Cola’s famous mid-20th-century Santa Claus advertisements.
Coca-Cola commissioned Sundblom in 1931 to create advertising illustrations showing Santa Claus enjoying the beverage. His paintings portrayed Santa as a large, cheerful, warm-looking figure with a full white beard, a red suit, and a friendly expression. The campaign helped make this version of Santa especially influential in popular culture.
Sundblom did not invent Santa Claus or create every earlier image of the character. Santa had already appeared in many forms before Coca-Cola’s campaign. His contribution was a highly memorable advertising interpretation that became widely reproduced through magazine and poster advertising.
The common claim that Coca-Cola “created” the modern Santa is an overstatement. The company helped popularize and standardize a particular visual presentation, while Sundblom supplied the best-known paintings for the campaign.