Coca-Cola’s integral influence in the making of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
Until the streaming era came along and ruined it, A Charlie Brown Christmas was arguably the ultimate Christmas viewing staple for American audiences, having aired on broadcast television for 56 consecutive years following its premiere in December 1965.
These days, though, it can only be watched exclusively on AppleTV+, which has more than a touch of irony about it, considering the underlying message at the heart of the animated special was a warning against the over-commercialisation of the festive period. Now, it can be seen only on a platform owned by one of the biggest corporations in the world, but it was another that played a key part in its creation.
With the Peanuts comic strip growing exponentially in popularity in the early 1960s and the Coca-Cola Company actively seeking a Yuletide special to slather in its own branding and sponsorship, fate convened to bring the two together after Charles Schulz was contacted and ultimately put together an outline in less than a day. His pitch remained almost entirely untouched right the way through to the finished version, albeit with some of the more overtly commercial elements of Coca-Cola’s involvement stripped away.
In the version that instantly wormed its way into the hearts of millions, Snoopy causes a mishap that sends Charlie Brown soaring into a tree, while his best friend Linus van Pelt vanishes off-screen just before the title card appears. Similarly, towards the end, the core characters band together for a rousing rendition of ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’, and that was it. However, there were originally intended to be two less-than-subtle Coca-Cola references.
In the first instance, Linus crashes right into a sign for the drinks conglomerate, and in the latter, a voiceover would have intoned, “Merry Christmas from your local Coca-Cola bottler”. The following year, the gang got back together for another corporate-approved animated special titled Charlie Brown’s All-Stars. Thanks to the involvement of yet another corporate sponsor, Coca-Cola was pushed further into the background.
Confectioner Dolly Madison had a deal with Schulz to use the Peanuts crew to promote its range of baked goods, to the extent the company and Coca-Cola were jointly listed as sponsors on A Charlie Brown Christmas in subsequent airings. Because the animated one-off had already been finished from a production standpoint and Dolly Madison didn’t want its partner stealing all of the limelight, neither of them are explicitly advertised during the festive special. Instead, Charlie Brown’s All-Stars incorporated them both in the opening credits as a compromise, leaving the holiday favourite unsullied by commercialisation run amok.
As history has shown, A Charlie Brown Christmas fared just fine on its own without the fingerprints of either the Coca-Cola Company or Dolly Madison, winning an Emmy for ‘Outstanding Children’s Program’ and selling over five million copies of its soundtrack. In the end, an annual tradition was born from Coca-Cola seeking a suitable method of shilling its wares, only for the brand to be completely excised from the version known and loved by so many.
