So this is Christmas and what have you donned,
or indeed will you be wearing red?
The colour red has long been associated with Christmas and yes, Coca-Cola did have a major part in cementing a single image of Santa, but they were just using an image that had long been established. Santa was wearing red and white many years before Haddon Sundblom, the illustrator for Coca-Cola in the 1930’s, produced the famous Coca-Cola image of Father Christmas. Santa Claus dates back to 16th century England during the reign of Henry VIII, when he was pictured as a large man in green or scarlet robes lined with fur. So Coca-Cola did not change Santa from green to red; he was portrayed wearing both colours long before Coca-Cola. They merely fastened the colour red – obviously for their own commercial purposes. Either way, I prefer my Santa Claus to be red.
History shows that red is the first colour after black and white. Every culture has words for black and white. If a third colour exists, it is red. It is the colour of passion, love, danger, and anger. Red is the colour of fire and blood, the colour of life itself. The power of red is so strong even in its chemical make up, so much so that when an artist mixes it with another colour or in aesthetic proportions of a composition – the colour red is used... sparingly.
There are red flags, red light districts, red tomatoes, red nose reindeers, red riding hoods, red squares, red ferraris, red roses, red poppies, red rubies, red strawberries, red fire engines, red phone boxes, red post boxes, red squirrels, red lipstick, red apples, red arrows, little red roosters, 99 red balloons and indeed Red Hot Chili Peppers. There are so many things associated with the colour red. The list here could be endless. I could go on and on but one final association to mention is that red is the global symbol for... STOP!
International drinks manufacturers do take every opportunity to promote their brand. I myself at www.fishtanktees.com while not an international brand, yet :-) and while I do need to promote the Fishtank Tees brand, I would hope that in doing so I have at least been somewhat informative and even a little entertaining. My favourite colour t-shirt is probably always going to be black but I have created some designs that I think look pretty cool on red t-shirts.
Maybe if you wear one this time of year (over a long sleeve...it’s a bit chilly out there!) instead of wearing the traditional “Christmas jumper”, you'll have some “Street cREDmas”
– here are a few links:
http://buff.ly/19AClfy
http://buff.ly/1jmJpTj
http://buff.ly/1fIGVJL
To finish off here is a little music by a band with the word red in their name and snow in the song’s title, Merry Christmas! http://youtu.be/yuFI5KSPAt4
Santa photo by Miel Van Opstal (not endorsed),
attribution license. ref.: http://buff.ly/1hoKcyr
Chilli photo by Vernon Swanepoel (not endorsed),
attribution license. ref.: http://buff.ly/1hoJ3qM
Stop sign photo by Chrishna (not endorsed),
attribution license. ref.: http://buff.ly/1hoORAx
