• by Nina Lentini , December 18, 2006

As Coca-Cola celebrates the 75th anniversary of introducing ads with the Santa Claus we know and love, White Rock Beverages says it is the beverage company that deserves the credit for putting a contemporary image of Santa in its ads--decades earlier.

"Claim Debunked," proclaimed the headline of the press release White Rock issued Friday. "135-Year-Old Beverage Company Used St. Nick in Ads Decades Prior, Demands Secret Recipe as Reparation."

Coca-Cola, which did not return a call from Marketing Daily, did not, to our knowledge, comply with the request.

"We tried to do it in fun," said Larry Bodkin, president of White Rock Beverages--who said he also had not heard a response from his rival. Paging Muhtar Kent!

Coke has been ballyhooing the creation in 1931 of its first ad featuring Mr. C. The company is holding an online exhibition of past Santa ads, as well as a free display at New York's Lincoln Center.

White Rock's press release was filled with jolly references to Coke slogans, to wit: "The Claus that refreshes was actually introduced two decades earlier by White Rock" and "You can't beat the feeling of telling the truth. These upstarts at Coke owe it to the American people to admit that White Rock and Santa Claus is the real thing. Only then can people have a Coke and a smile."

But seriously, folks, White Rock has posted copies of a 1915 ad that ran in Collier's and several from the 1920s in Life magazine that show Kris Kringle--fat, white-whiskered and garbed in red and white--enjoying the taste of White Rock. Naughty Santa was even pictured enjoying a little whiskey with his soda.

Bodkin, whose family has run the New York-based White Rock Beverages since 1952, is asking the Atlanta soft drink company to either publicly apologize for taking undue credit or divulge its secret recipe to White Rock.

Founded in 1871, White Rock is one of America's oldest beverage companies. Its products are distributed in more than 40 states and multiple overseas markets. Psyche, a Greek goddess and White Rock's trademark, signifies the company's commitment to the utmost quality, purity and refreshment.

Take that, Coke.