Have you ever goggled who invented Santa? If you have, you may have
been surprised by the top hit.
The Coca-Cola Company presents: the true story of modern day Santa!
Haddon Sundbloom, a designer for Coca-Cola in the 1930’s, is
credited with creating the most iconic representation of modern day Santa
Claus. His version was based on a Sundbloom’s Santa is what Fuchs would consider “Cultural Work”. I.e.
work that is done in relation to others, involving the production and
reproduction of meaning.
The concept of ownership in a capitalist structure has been a theme
explored at great length through this course. As we have discussed, when you are
credited with creating an intellectual or physical good you have the right to
be compensated accordingly. In this case,
neither Coca-Cola nor Sundbloom have been credited any royalties for the
billions of retail dollars monetized in commoditized Santa goods. Why would
Coca-Cola, an extremely capitalistic corporation, not demand royalties on
products that use the image of Santa they claimed to have created? It appears
that since there were similar images of “Santa” that existed during the 30’s,
Sundbloom’s representation of Santa could not be credited as his own.
Do you think this example convolutes the idea of physical ownership &
intellectual ownership in a capitalist superstructure?
This is a very interesting post Nikki! Definitely a great connection from Santa/Coca-Cola etc. to Fuchs notion of "cultural work." I would say that this example does exemplify the idea of intellectual ownership and possibly physical ownership in a capitalist superstructure. Perhaps Coke doesn't demand rights and royalties to the Santa image because it's such a widely used concept that it would be a legal hassle more than a gain. Multiple other corporations would attempt to fight them on this and there is lots of evidence that they were not necessarily the first or "owners" of this idea/image.
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