6 Iconic Things You Didn’t Know Started As Marketing Campaigns

Some marketing campaigns will be remembered for years (How many licks…?, Can you hear me now?). Certain slogans become timeless (Just Do It, Got Milk?). Spokespeople become cultural icons (The Marlboro Man, Flo). Some brands even become so synonymous with their product they become part of the lexicon as verbs (Google, Uber).

And then there are marketing campaigns that have influenced our lifestyle to the point they’ve shifted the entire culture. We don’t question them, and we’re likely unaware that we do and believe certain things because marketing agencies wanted us to. (Why do we propose with diamonds, after all?)

Here are six iconic things that started as marketing campaigns.

Santa Clause

Prior to the 1930s, Santa Clause wasn’t depicted as a jolly man with a beard and a red suit. He was actually depicted as many things, including a creepy elf-like figure and, most commonly, a bishop… you know, Saint Nicholas.

In the early 193os, however, The Coca-Cola Company started taking out Christmas ads in magazines, and hired an artist to paint Santa more like the way we know him today. The artist based his depiction off of the famous poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas — although Santa was suspiciously dressed in Coke’s colors. (Santa…