The Most Famous TV Commercial Starring Trucks
Can a TV commercial become a symbol of Christmas? And one where trucks play the starring role? Since 1995, the answer to this question has been: “yes.”
Coca-Cola, present on the market since the late 19th century (initially available only by prescription!), is undoubtedly the most famous soft drink in the world. Back in the 1930s, the company’s marketers tried to boost its sales during the winter season as well (cold beverages aren’t naturally associated with a time of year when snow covers the ground). The result? The image of Santa Claus as a jovial, gray-bearded man with a belly, dressed in a red outfit, familiar to all of us today. Created by artist Haddon Sundblom on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company, this depiction of Santa Claus replaced the traditional image of the character as a Christian bishop (which the historical saint Nicholas indeed was) to such an extent that it is now the default representation of Santa – even in films, books, and commercials unrelated to Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola’s Legendary Truck Commercial
Fast forward a few decades. It’s 1995, and Coca-Cola’s management is looking to relaunch its holiday sales campaign. The new ads were meant to combine tradition with modernity. The marketing agency W.B. Doner took on the task of creating the campaign and developed the concept of trucks taking center stage.
Of course, this wasn’t the first TV commercial in history to feature trucks prominently. For example, in the 1970s, the agency Bozell created a series of spots for the bread producer Old Home. The story of a romance between truck driver C.W. McCall and a roadside café waitress named Mavis, depicted in the commercials, became very popular and even launched the music career of William Dale Fries Jr., the copywriter behind the campaign. He wrote songs for the ads and performed them himself. When they became hits, he left marketing behind to become a country music star (one of his songs even inspired the cult film “Convoy”). But let’s get back to Coca-Cola.
Marketers at W.B. Doner proposed a spot in which a convoy of Coca-Cola trucks, illuminated by thousands of Christmas lights, enters a snowy American town. As the trucks pass by trees in the forest and buildings in the town, they magically light up with sparkling lights. The faces of children and adults alike glow with awe and festive joy. All of this unfolds to the rhythm of a simple yet catchy jingle with the words “Holidays Are Coming.”
The production of the spot featured three Freightliner trucks with red-painted trailers bearing large Coca-Cola logos. Each trailer was decorated with 30,000 lights. But wait, only three? The holiday truck convoy on screen seemed to include hundreds of vehicles! The creators used the most advanced (at the time) film special effects technology. Doner and Coca-Cola collaborated with specialists from Industrial Light &Magic, the FX studio founded by George Lucas, responsible for the effects in “Star Wars,”“Indiana Jones,”“Jurassic Park,”and dozens of other Hollywood hits. The team at ILM digitally created the remaining trucks and the glowing winter landscapes.
A Pop Culture Legend
In subsequent years, Coca-Cola began using the commercial in holiday campaigns aired in other countries, including Europe. What’s more, the company’s marketers decided to bring the TV magic to life by organizing real convoys of red, illuminated trucks that visited cities across the USA and later Europe, promoting the world’s most famous fizzy drink.
In 2001, singer Melanie Thornton (known from the Eurodance group La Bouche) recorded a full version of the song based on the ad’s jingle. “Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)”joined the ranks of timeless Christmas hits, but sadly, Melanie Thornton did not live to see its success – she died in a plane crash two days before the single’s release.
Almost 30 years after its premiere, Coca-Cola’s Christmas truck commercial is not just a marketing legend but also a pop culture icon. No wonder that the new version of the ad, released by Coca-Cola this year and entirely generated by AI, sparked widespread outrage on the Internet.
Image: DALL-E