• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 15, 2014

Last Wednesday, at an event that would either bring you a great degree of merriment, hilarity or disgust depending upon your proclivities for naked, chubby middle-aged men, San Francisco-based Heat hosted Sketchy Claus. And yes -- the event was indeed quite sketchy.

At what the agency defined as a "cultured holiday evening with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and attendees portrait drawing the real Santa," a roly-poly Santa Claus stripped off his red jacket and pants and struck a decidedly @MaleCopywriter-ish pose. Santa even struck Kim Kardashian's now ubiquitous "break the internet" pose.

The agency developed Sketchy Claus as an alternative way to approach the holidays with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek exploration in art and creativity. Creative directors and artists from around the SF ad community participated in the event, with more than 50 portraits of a naked Santa in varying poses drawn during the evening. 

Proceeds from ticket sales for the evening reached $2,000 for the charity One Warm Coat which, I am told, translates to 4,000 coats for recipients. Heat will auction the portraits on eBay in an effort to up the $2,000 take to $5,000.