Coca-Cola Answers Santa's Forgotten Letters With Surprise Gifts
By: Marissa Brassfield
Published: May 4, 2011

It's late fall in Brazil, and ad agency Ogilvy just rolled out a heartwarming ad for Coca-Cola called "Santa's Forgotten Letters." The commercial documents a guerrilla marketing stunt in which an actor dressed as St. Nick heads to the Santa Claus Museum in Santa Claus, Indiana. He and the Coca-Cola team rifle through some 60,000 forgotten letters to Santa, some of which date back to the 30s, and select 75 to answer.
Santa Claus then visited each of the 75 homes, asked the author to read his childhood letter to Santa and surprised him with a gift from his original Christmas list. The gifts ranged from a doll to a toy horse to a train set, and the recipients' reactions were priceless. After the participants share a Coca-Cola with Santa, the tag line rolls: "Open happiness."
The creatives behind the Coca-Cola "Santa's Forgotten Letters" ad were executive creative director Anselmo Ramos, creative director Claudio Lima, art directors Pedro Izique and Izabella Cabral, and copywriters Meg Farquhar and Fred Aramis.


Photo by Elliott Brown