Awesomely Off-Topic: Books, Brands, Business and Everything Else We’re Not Supposed to Say Out Loud
🎙️ Awesomely Off-Topic is the podcast that dives headfirst into the business of being brilliantly, messily, unapologetically you.
Hosted by award-winning speaker trainer and business and personal empowerment coach Taz Thornton, alongside publishing powerhouse, book mentor and content coach Asha Clearwater – expect bold conversations about building a business and life that actually fits you, not the other way round.
We’ll talk personal brand, visibility without the ick, microbooks with major impact, ADHD-friendly approaches, messy launches, business flops, spiritual sidequests and all the stuff no one told you you were allowed to say out loud.
We’re doing this on a shoestring – raw, unedited and totally unscripted. No fancy studio, no big budget, no gatekeeping. Just hit record and go.
Real talk. Tangents. Swearing (probably). Useful insights. And a whole lot of permission to do it your way.
It’s chaos. It’s clarity. It’s Awesomely Off-Topic.
Awesomely Off-Topic: Books, Brands, Business and Everything Else We’re Not Supposed to Say Out Loud
🎙️ Episode 27: Help, Grow, Feel, Slow
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
When did Christmas get so loud?
In this episode, we share our gentle rebellion against all the commercialisation, noise and pressure, with a four-part gift philosophy we’re inviting others to play with.
Along the way, we unpack how commercialised Christmas has become, share a handful of festive factoids, and - as ever - go slightly off-piste with a heartfelt (and entirely reasonable) plea to Gillian Anderson to notice us and sponsor the podcast. Gillian, if you’re listening, we adore your G-Spot. Call us! :D
A cosy, thoughtful, gently subversive Christmas episode for anyone who wants this season to feel like something, not just cost something.
Something you’d love us to know? Send us a message - we’d love to hear from you.
✨ Unfiltered. Unedited. Awesomely Off-Topic. New episodes every Tuesday.
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👋 @thetazthornton + @ashaclearwater
You're listening to Awesomely Off Topic, the podcast where we talk books, brand business, and everything else we're not supposed to say. Out loud, we're Taz and Asha, ex journos, now coaches, creators, and chaos navigators. Let's go! Awesomely Off Topic. It's nearly Christmas. Not my favourite C-word, gotta be honest, but it is almost the season. To be jolly, perhaps? I can be jolly, I can be jolly. Of course I can. I've had one of Gillian's G Spots this morning. I'm very jolly. I'm sipping on Gillian's G Spot right now. We're not being sponsored by G Spot. What we'd love to be if you're listening.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Gillian, please, please. We love you. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So what are we talking about today then, Taz? Well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bit sick of all the commercialised rubbish. I mean you can always tell that it's nearly Christmas when the Cabries Cream eggs start appearing in the shops, can't you?
SPEAKER_02:I used to love a good Cadbury's cream egg before I went vegan. There's nothing really to replace it, but hey, I'm going off topic already. So yes, you always can tell that it's nearly Christmas when you start getting. Have we really got stuff for Easter already? We can't.
SPEAKER_01:Well slightly tongue in cheek, but it's not going to be long, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:I've not seen that. Oh, sorry, I lost I lost the point where really it's not really going to be long.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, you know, we have we have the bonfire night stuff and the Halloween stuff and the Christmas stuff that starts to appear just after Easter.
SPEAKER_02:My equivalent of that is already on TV, there's holidays. Yeah. Like, you know, all the different holiday um operators are starting to put their adverts out, and I think, yeah, it must be nearly Christmas, and Boxing Day sales, of course.
SPEAKER_01:Do you know what? For for a lot of self-employed people, I don't know if this is just me, but I actually find it really quite stressful that it starts so early. I mean, back in the days when we were both in periodical publishing.
SPEAKER_02:Periodical publishing.
SPEAKER_01:I know, but when we were doing monthly magazines, we know that we're working months ahead. And you're probably working on the the December issues in about what?
SPEAKER_02:October, September, October. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But that's still not as early as as as the shops start pushing all the Christmas messages now.
SPEAKER_02:You know, if when I run the world there's a thought, everybody do sleep well, don't have nightmares.
SPEAKER_01:Um nothing before the beginning of December.
SPEAKER_02:But even everything's come forward a bit though, hasn't it? If you notice, people are putting up the decorations early, and there has been a there's there was a bit of reason for that. And the t was it the Times recently talking about that?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely lift our mood. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, and that I think I started in the US and it's coming over here, and there's been a real trend in getting earlier and earlier with Christmas decorations since lockdown.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I can get that in order to kind of cheer yourself up with Christmas.
SPEAKER_02:Quinky lights, and you know, and sorry, I'm excited.
SPEAKER_01:Tacky tacky decorations on your tree, we've got so many, haven't we? I love it. I get I get that, I can get it from a cheering up point of view. But for anyone who does not uh get their tummy full of butterflies and excitement at the thought of Christmas, it's just stressy. I find it really, really stressy because all of a sudden I'm doing my best to make the best of the last quarter, which for anyone in you know who's self-employed, there's always this push on and this this crazy belief that nobody buys in December. And this afternoon we're actually running our podcast on a shoestring and we are mini masterclass. We're recording this in December. What's the date today? It's December the 9th, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Ninth isn't it? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So people do buy in December. But that aside, I just find it really stressy when all of a sudden, halfway through the year, I'm just coming out of summer, just starting to decide if I need to get some some of my sweatshirts out, and all of a sudden, there's big fat father Christmases sitting on all the aisles in the in the shops.
SPEAKER_02:And look out for the singing reindeer. You always get those. I quite like those, but not in kind of October. I think it's too early.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so what that what's the point of all this then? That brought us to today's episode, didn't we? Because because you've got all the branding stuff around Christmas, and I know for a lot of shops and a lot of brands, it's the biggest time of the year. Of course it is, especially when you're thinking about things like toys. I mean, my goodness. The way and there should there should be a whole other episode just talking about how the marketers and the branders deliberately place and design things to get kids to go and ask their parents for it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we had a fantastic example of that, didn't we? What was that from? We had something brochure, wasn't it? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I can't remember what the brochure was. Well that says a lot for it, as well. Anyway, we had something through in the post with some marketing stuff, and it said that there was a that this this little A5 booklet was branded.
SPEAKER_02:It was for Amazon.
SPEAKER_01:It was Amazon, yeah. Amazon Prime. This little booklet was branded as as a kid's activity book. And a story as well. And a story book. So of course all these parents will be just oh look, have this little Jimmy, little Lara, whatever. But what was the key to it?
SPEAKER_02:No prices on it.
SPEAKER_01:No prices in it anywhere. But where where you think it's going to be full of colouring and activities? It's literally an Amazon catalogue, yeah. Full of toys, yeah, with no prices on them. Yeah. And the only bit of activity is right on the inside of the back cover.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Now the front of the book makes it look just like it's a kid's book. So how many parents have not checked that and just gone, there you go, go and keep yourself busy with that? Only to, you know, five minutes later, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy.
SPEAKER_02:I want this, I want this, I'm not sure. Oh, this, I want this, I want this. Yeah. And then you find out how much it is. Grandma! So, which is fine, but it's brilliant, brilliant marketing. It is brilliant. Merchandising, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:There's loads to talk about with the whole branding and merchandising and marketing. But also, we do tend to talk about mindset a little bit in this podcast. And if it stresses me out when all of a sudden I'm doing my best to get through the rest of the year, and all of a sudden all the messages are telling me that the year is almost finished. When in fact there's another good four months to go yet. That is stressful. And I know that in the past, Ash, we've been caught up in the whole commercialisation stuff, and also that that oh I need to show my love by spending as much as I can.
SPEAKER_02:And yeah, we've done that, haven't we? Yeah. It's like we almost kind of it's we get again gamifying it, but it's almost like, oh, I've spent more on you than you have on me. Well, I've never felt like that, but it's good to know. No, but I mean, you know, that we've kind of I better get some. Would you like me to hand you a shovel? Oh dear. Is it a festive shovel with some nice sparkly things on it? It probably is, yeah, and some tinsel wrapped around the handle. And some some tablets for my headache when you hit me over the head with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Stop, Ash, just stop. Yes, back on track, Taz.
SPEAKER_01:The point, yes, and we do have one. Do we? We do.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Is that Ash and I have for a couple of years now decided to do the opposite and put a cap on our spending at Christmas. So this year, for instance, we've said, well, right, we're not going to spend more than 100 quid on one another. Which and you can do it for a lot, a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot less than that as well. Um, a few years back we saw something in an article in a magazine, I think, or it could be up could have been online, doesn't matter where, about the four-gift rule, which originated in the US. A lot of people think this is an old scandy tradition. Yeah, I did, didn't I? It's not correcting me on that. It's not. It was div it was first coined by Danielle Matthews way back in 2008 on some kind of American mum's blog, I think. And the idea was to have this four-gift rule, which was something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. Oh, I like it. Yeah, I like that. Nice. Now, the reason a lot of people think that comes from from the kind of scandy Nordic areas is if you go back further, there's an old Icelandic tradition. I'm not if I'm gonna attempt to pronounce it, I'm probably gonna do this wrong, but it's pronounced something along the lines of Yola Boca Florith.
SPEAKER_02:Could you say, please? You sound like Rose from the Golden Girls. Stop it now, it's not really to great. I like it though, I do like the pronunciation. Could you do it one more time, please? Yola Boca Florith.
SPEAKER_01:Um anyway, that roughly translates as a Christmas book flood.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, I think.
SPEAKER_01:And on Christmas Eve, they just used to give books and read, and that that literally translates like a Christmas book flood. What a heavenly place that would be, just to read and just lots of tea and there's I know, but then there's this urban myth that's kind of blended that with the four-gift rule. Yeah. And all these people think that this something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read is a Christmas Eve tradition from the kind of Scandy Nordic Nordic island. So that's where the two kind of got mixed. Yeah. So it kind of blurs a little bit. Yeah. So this year we've we've come up with our own. We have, it's so exciting.
SPEAKER_02:Are you ready, listeners?
SPEAKER_01:And we're hoping that if you haven't finished getting all your Christmas gifts yet, or like us, you're getting a bit sick of having to spend hand over fist for stuff that people don't really want, or worse, and we know you're all doing this. We know some of you are, because we've all had to do it. Spending money to buy gifts for people that you don't know and you don't like and you don't want to spend time with.
SPEAKER_02:Don't know what you mean, Taz, but yeah, I think it's wonderful. It isn't sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:No, it isn't, because I've got to go and spend time with great Uncle Sid, who gets a bit handsy, and Aunt Maureen, who just goes on and on and on and on and on about what it was like in the war, and yeah. I just invented those people. They are not actual people from my life. To all the Sids and Maureen's listeners, listening. Yeah, exactly. What's that line in movies? Any any similarities purely coincidental? Yeah, exactly. Quickly put that one in the case. Anyway, okay. So we came up with our own version of this four-gift rule and we've deliberately made it quite wide. So any of you who want to take part in this, because either you think there's there's too much commercialisation, or maybe, heaven forbid, although we're never allowed to admit this, are we? What if actually it's been quite a tough year and you're a little bit brassic? And it will come good again. Yeah, but if that's you. So our four gift rule goes like this something to help, something to grow, something to feel, something to slow. So something to help. The idea behind that is it's something that gives back. So maybe you're getting a a a gift from a local craftsperson or a fair trade shop, or maybe it's one of those gifts that ties into charity, maybe it's one of those memberships where you get a little cuddly dolphin with it or something. Nice, but something something to help, something that gives back to our community, to the world, to people in need. Something to grow. Now you can play that whichever way you like. We first thought that's something to do with personal development. Maybe it's a book about mindset or spirituality, or maybe it's it's a journal. But of course, something to grow.
SPEAKER_02:It could be like seeds, couldn't it? It could be something great.
SPEAKER_01:So depending on who you're giving for, just something that symbolises growth for them in some way. Something that plants a seed for more for fortuitous and happier times in the year ahead. I like that one too. That's really nice. Okay. Then we've got something to feel. So that's a gift that's especially.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, Tess. I'm here.
SPEAKER_01:Oh for goodness sake. Stop wangling your wangers in my face, woman.
SPEAKER_02:But it's only because they're beautiful marketing.
SPEAKER_01:They do have awesome off topic across them.
SPEAKER_02:They do.
SPEAKER_01:Well, given the size of yours. Awesome, I'm yeah, top. So rude. Harsh but fair. They are lovely wangers. Anyway. So good job. We put the little over 18s thing on buzzfeet, buzz broad when we sort this, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, maybe. Yes. Okay, carrying on. So, yeah, this one's a little bit more. Something to feel.
SPEAKER_01:Put some real thought behind that gift and to show your love and devotion for the person you're buying for with that gift. Something to show how you feel. To make them feel loved, feel seen, feel heard, feel appreciated. Nice.
SPEAKER_02:So I'll make you a cup of tea then. Yeah, thanks.
SPEAKER_01:And then something to slow. Something to help them actually relax. That doesn't mean you're gonna go and buy a load of cannabis.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I've got Gillian's G Spot, which is helping me to relax. I could just buy you. They're not sponsoring us, I promise. I'd love it if it's worth Gillian's G spot.
SPEAKER_01:So would I. It's fabulous. It is a really lovely drink if you haven't tried it. We're on the Soothe version.
SPEAKER_02:The Soothe Scarlet Apple and Sage, which is lovely, boosted with adaptogens and neutropics. Neutropics, of course. It's very nice. Oh, anyway, anyway, yeah, go on.
SPEAKER_01:Something to slow, something to help you relax. So maybe it's a fluffy pair of socks or some hot chocolate.
SPEAKER_02:I quite like slippers. Slippers. My sad are quite like those.
SPEAKER_01:Do you remember those two Southern blokes we once overheard in? I think it was Aldi or Little. Close to Christmas, these two old boys walking down the middle aisle. And we just heard them go, here, here Harry, have you seen these? They ain't exactly socks, and they ain't exactly slippers. They're called slipper socks. Slipper socks. Anyway, like it was the brush best invention ever. Just made me chuckle. Yeah, it was good. With those exact voices, obviously, and accents. Yeah, exactly. Okay, exactly. So what else could it be? Something to slow? I mean that could be a journal that helps them to journal every night or come up with their gratitudes or something.
SPEAKER_02:It could be, I don't know, it could be something to do with one of the apps or something for meditation. So you could buy somebody that for six months or a year or whatever.
SPEAKER_01:Or it could literally be something like a singing bowl or a hand pan or something to help them really. You're not going to get a decent hand pan for under 100 quid Ash, so you can you can play with my hand pans that we've already got out. Thank you, that's very kind of you. Not a euphemism.
SPEAKER_02:I think that beats the cup of tea, maybe. Yeah. Actually, I don't know. I think I'd rather have a cup of tea sometimes. Would you? Yeah. Depends on the meat. The state of my hand pan, please. Anybody got got any paracetamol? Anyway, okay. So they're all out. That's a lovely idea, though, isn't it? And it's really simple.
SPEAKER_01:So that's what yeah, that's what we'll be doing this Christmas, isn't it? We've capped the budget at 100 quid. Give it some thought, guys, because I've not got a lot of time. Uh-oh. We're capping the budget at 100 quid and we're doing something to help, something to grow, something to feel, something to slow. And we will be reporting back about what we receive. And I think just for Christmas Eve, we might do Yolabokaflood. Really? Is that a euphemism, Taz? What? Should I should I um I think we're gonna get each other a book? A book for Christmas Eve, out with a book. Oh, yeah, okay, okay, that's cool. Y'all the book of it.
SPEAKER_02:I like pop-up books. I'll get your pop-up book if you want a pop-up book for Christmas Eve. What's popping up? I'm not excuse the smoke. Yeah, anyway, okay. So I love that idea though on Christmas Eve. It's a really nice way, isn't it, to bring in the kind of festive window if you like.
SPEAKER_01:It also brings it back to basics as well, doesn't it? You mean I mean the the something to feel that could be something that you've handcrafted for them. It does.
SPEAKER_02:I'm just letting you know now.
SPEAKER_01:You're gonna draw me another rabbit, aren't you? There's a story about the rabbits I should draw as well.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not very arty or crafty well, I can be quite crafty, but not in that one.
SPEAKER_01:You can be. I've seen you've done some beautiful artwork over time, over the years. Have I? Yeah, really. When you went when you got really into pastels and you got beautiful hair.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, I did. What you've got single hair.
SPEAKER_01:One short curly thing.
SPEAKER_02:Oh dear. And the hair of the lagomorph variety.
SPEAKER_01:The one that's a bit like a rabbit but with longer ears. Yeah, so yeah, dear listeners. If you haven't got all your gifts yet, I would we would like to invite you to take part of this something to help, something to grow, something to feel, something to slow with us. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could turn that into a tradition? Because it brings it back to its roots, doesn't it? Away from how much do we how much can we spend? Or what tack can we, what generic tack can we go and get from a supermarket or department store for people that we don't really know, don't know what they're like. So I know we'll get them some bath stuff.
SPEAKER_02:And the real really easy one to do, isn't it? Because I know we fall into that as well, and everybody does it because it's convenient. You know, you get these lovely packs, don't you? Like sort of, you know, smellies and stuff like that. Lovely. All different types of. They are lovely, they look really cool. You're probably paying for the actual pack as much as you are for the product, but they look fabulous, they're really easy to wrap, and I'm I'm not very good at wrapping. Uh-uh. One time, one time. No, I'm not. But yeah, they're great, but it's like sometimes you think, oh, grab another one of those. What can we do this year that's different?
SPEAKER_01:Well, this takes it right back to the heart of what Christmas should be. But and and regardless of the religion behind this, whether you but whether whether you identify as Christian or not, whether you believe in the book, or whether you just like the idea of um Christ consciousness, which is for me is quite different to the rigid rule book, even if you dump all of that and just go way back to thinking about this as your time, as solstice, as a festive time, just back to the heart of what giving is about. And the heart of giving is not about how much you spend, unless you want to sponsor us. Um it's chillion. It's it's about putting real thought into something. And when was the last time when you were buying gifts, particularly at this time of year, with all the pressure and the stress, that you really, really thought about what somebody might like?
SPEAKER_02:That's a nice idea, I like that. And how could you also bring that into work? So into your business life, your working life, if you work for yourself or you're part of a a small business or a bigger business, yeah, how could you bring that through in what you do at work around this time of year?
SPEAKER_01:Because you built that into your secret Santa instead of people getting you know like wrapped up willy shapes, lollipops, and things. Such as our old secret centre, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:Well, obviously. Yeah, but you could, couldn't you? You could do something like that at work and do something a little bit different that gives it a little bit more thought put into it, um, that shows your appreciation for somebody that you work with, colleague.
SPEAKER_01:That would be really cool. On the other hand, if you do happen to be in one of those relationships where you can say, darling, I'd really love a new Lamborghini this year and you'll get it, then go for it. That's gonna make you feel something, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yep, definitely.
SPEAKER_01:Whatever's right for you. So, what about the I mean the the outline topics of of this podcast are supposed to be, you know, books, branding, business. What are the what are the branding lessons we can take from Christmas time, Ash?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, crumbs, where do we start? Well, for a start, it's about timing because I think you know, the fact that you talked about earlier, you were saying about all the things that are in the shops really early, because from a retailer's point of view, they've got to get their stuff out there and early so that you know there's gonna be many people, unlike us who are lastminute.com, very much so. Um, but people would have some people would have already got and will be in the sales getting stuff for next year's Christmas, but it's getting they get their mass their messaging, all the merchandising done early and out on the shop. So, what can we do in our businesses to get ahead of the game, if you like, for later in the year? Yeah. So, you know, when we talk about our marketing, for instance, our content, we talk about content plans, and we had a very open and honest about that, didn't we, quite recently? I think possibly on one of these podcasts, we talked about that. How often do we actually stick to that content plan three months or six months in? You know, let's be real about it. I'm looking to stick to mine three weeks in or three days in. So we've got that going on.
SPEAKER_01:So, but I also think from that's me up opening another Jillian's juice board. Oh, she's she's sipping from Jillian's juice ball now.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, we're happy with it, anyway. Um, but so in terms of timing, getting things getting organised, getting things out there, getting things ready to go in terms of your PR really early on is great if you know things are certain coming up, big dates in the diary in the calendar, yeah. What have you got planned for that? So that's one of my lessons, I think. Immediately is the obvious one.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. But again, without stressing yourself out, so of course the other point that that happens just before Christmas. And I tied myself in real nuts about this this year. I've got a strange visual of you as a big knot. As a big pretzel.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh. Well.
SPEAKER_01:If you're not sure where to start, find the pink bit. The hair, actually the hair. Anyway, go on, yes. Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Yeah. Now for years I've put out a pink weekend deal. I think one year I even did a a pink week. You did? I remember that wasn't that long ago. No, this year we promoed it in Awesome Source in my weekly newsletter. And then I was so stressed and snowed under with everything else I was trying to catch up on that I didn't do a pink weekend offer.
SPEAKER_02:Oh dear.
SPEAKER_01:So Black Friday and Cyber Monday, that's a relatively new thing, isn't it? So and look at that, that's clearly been created to to combat all the people who stopped buying at Christmas time because they knew it'd be half the price, you know, on Boxing Day. So that was quite a clever move.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I like that. And also, what else could we learn from that? From our businesses?
SPEAKER_01:From a branding point of view, let's talk branding again, a little bit like the uh the the why does St. George have blue eyes now podcast we did. What colour does Father Christmas wear? Red. Why is he red? He started off as green, didn't he? He did start off as green.
SPEAKER_02:Ah, tell us more. Why is he red? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Coca-Cola.
unknown:Oh, Coca-Cola.
SPEAKER_01:Coca-Cola turned him red for their advertising.
SPEAKER_02:Clever.
SPEAKER_01:And everybody now sees. That must have been way back. Yeah. I don't know. Let me research. You talk about the color wearing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I don't know as much as you, so this will be an interesting minute or so. Um Father Christmas for me, yeah, I know, because again, wasn't that from the Nordic countries or Germany where he was wearing green? I don't know. And then you're saying that Coca-Cola changed it for their marketing. So what can we what can we gather from other big brands and adapt that so it becomes something for our brands as well? I like that. So Tazzy's going to look now and she's going to inform us about that. Right. So is that really as early as that?
SPEAKER_01:I can't believe that.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Go on. So technically they didn't turn him red, but they did they did play a huge, huge role in it. So in 1931, Coca-Cola commissioned illustrator Haddon Sundblum. You did your accent again. Maybe I should learn Icelandic. To create Santa Claus Adverts. That version, warm, plump, red suited, white-bearded, made Santa feel like a friendly grandad he might bump into after opening a Coke. From 1931 onwards, these adverts ran widely in magazines, posters, displays, reaching huge audiences, and in doing so, Coca-Cola helped to normalise that red suit as the standard Christmas image across the US and eventually globally. But there were some illustrations of Santa in his red outfits before then, and that was majorly influenced by a cartoonist called Thomas Nast. He had drawings of Santa in red and white from the late 1800s. Wow, okay. So they didn't invent the red suit, but their contribution did popularise and standardise the red suit of Father Christmas. So fancy that. And it says that there's around in 1931. Yeah, let's have a mini timeline because I think he's been green, he's been brown, he's been all kinds of colours before he was red. So here's a clo here's a timeline. The wonders of Chat GPT. Quickly, can you give me a timeline of Santa's outfits? Right, early origins. St. Nicholas, of course. Third to the 16th century. He's depicted in a religious bishop's robes, usually in reds, golds, or deep greens. He's not Santa yet though, he's more of a Christian figure of generosity. St. Nicholas. Yeah. Okay. European gift givers from the Middle Ages, figures like Sinta Class, De Moros, I'm probably saying that incorrectly, and various folk spirits. They varied widely in outfits from long cloaks, fur-lined robes, browns, blues, and greens. Then from the 1600s to the 1800s, we'd have Father Christmas versus St. Nick's.
SPEAKER_02:Santa's beached. Has Santa beach yet?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know, because I'm speaking like a child because I'm excited because it's Christmas morning.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, but that's whereas it was always Father Christmas for me. Well of course it was.
SPEAKER_01:What do you mean by that? So England's Father Christmas Father Christmas was a completely different tradition to St. Nicholas. Okay. Not to be confused with Saint Nicaragua. Oh, is that where the green the green robes come from then?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's where I've got it mixed up in my head. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yeah, yeah. Usually shown in green robes symbolising midwinter, feasting, and seasonal cheer. So the Father Christmas of of England was traditionally green.
SPEAKER_02:My dad, when he was pretending to be Father Christmas, he was wearing he was definitely wearing red, he wasn't wearing green.
SPEAKER_01:Um the American Santa emerged as well. Dutch settlers brought Synta Claas to New York, uh, which was New Amsterdam, and that name gradually morphed into Santa Claus. Santa Claus, there you go. From the late 1800s, Thomas Nast, as we met as we mentioned earlier, defines the blueprint. 1860s to the 1880s, American political cartoonist creates the first recognisable modern Santa. Round belly, white beard, the red suit appears increasingly often, though he also draws him in tan, brown, and green. So he was red again. Multicoloured.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Father Christmas for me.
SPEAKER_01:Father Christmas, yeah. Always will be ready. Yeah. Um that inspired more artists, and by the end of the 19th century, red's becoming common, but it's still not universal. The early 1900s, red becomes pop more popular, but it's still not fixed. Christmas postcards show Santa in blue, green, blue, blue. Santa in blue. Because it's cold.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Uh green, brown, red, or even white. Okay. You'd never see them against the snow in the North Pole.
SPEAKER_02:We'd just have a red nose. It'd just be a red nose, and you rose your cheeks. Then you see it was a reindeer. You think it was Rudolph? And then you'd be thinking about the reindeer, which were actually female reindeers.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, of course, because of the antlers. So Rudolph was a girl. That's another branding element we're going to talk about. So, um, no single colour was still dominating globally in the early 1900s, but retailers and artists started favouring the red colour because it stands out, but it's still inconsistent. But then, in 1931, Coca-Cola standardises the look. Haddon Sundblom's Coke Santa first appeared in 1931.
SPEAKER_02:Is that just me?
SPEAKER_01:Probably, it's probably pronounced something like Fred Smith. First appeared in 1931 Coca-Cola adverts. They depicted Santa as warm, jolly, human rather than elf-like.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that was uh he'd been a bit more elfy before. He always looks quite elfy, doesn't he? Oh dear. Wearing the bright red Coca-Cola red with white trim. They went in magazines across America and then worldwide, and that cemented the red. So although Coca-Cola didn't invent it, they cemented it as the standard. Yeah. And there we go. Other advertisers follow suit and adopt the red. Yeah. Storybooks, films, shop displays, Christmas cards, echo blombs design.
SPEAKER_02:Christmas movie.
SPEAKER_01:Krampus.
SPEAKER_02:Krampus. It isn't. What my mine is, you know what mine is? It's not so fancy at all. Elf, I love it. I love Elf. It just makes me laugh. Can we just go back to the branding? Sorry, okay, alright. I know, but I just asked that because it seemed a natural lead-on to that.
SPEAKER_01:So from St. Nicholas, from St. Nicholas all the way through to the multicoloured Father Christmas, from then becoming Santa Claus through to Coca-Cola cementing the red. We've got another really, really, really strong story there, haven't we, about making sure that you own your brand. Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_02:I've grabbed it and said, right, that's ours. And then look how they oh how they influence, sorry, that was me on the table. Hitting a finger on the table, not tap dancing. No, I wasn't. I actually hit the no, the ring on my finger on the table. There you go.
SPEAKER_01:This is a slightly smutty episode, isn't it? No, Julia's cheese.
SPEAKER_02:Um but yeah, it's yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? So it's just totally influenced us. And so then after that, Santa was always in red.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Every movie we've seen. So what are the messages we can learn from that? Number one, just because something always already exists, it doesn't mean you can't create your spin on it.
SPEAKER_02:Your version.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. The amount of people who say I can't do that because somebody else is already doing it, and I always refer them to a blog I wrote wrote about 75 years ago. That was imagine going into boots and there only being one brand and one colour of lipstick, for instance. No, just because somebody else has done it, it doesn't mean you can't do your version of it. Not to plagiarise.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, very important to make that point.
SPEAKER_01:But to be inspired by and to move from there. And you can make it your own.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Wouldn't mind being 50p behind Coca-Cola on that one. No.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, how many people have you seen have you seen the lot? Have you seen the lorry? Have you seen the float?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, the dates are coming. Oh the dates are coming. Ah, bah humbug. Bah Bah humbug. Any other what other branding and business notes can we take from Christmas then from this time of year? Back to that whole thing with the black Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Listen to your customers. That came as a result of people feeling disenfranchised by knowing that everything would be knocked down the day after Christmas. So lo and behold, they bring in a sale before Christmas, which stops people boycotting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's brilliant, isn't it? And again, it comes back to that timing thing. Timing is so important in all of these. If if they hadn't done what they did, like with Coca-Cola, with Santa, and the whole, you know, making that red an impact at that time, they would have possibly lost out on a huge opportunity there. But if look at what happened as a result of that, because the timing they got perfectly. And how many of us in our own branding and our content and everything else? Sometimes we can get the timings wrong. So with a little bit of thought, just you know, a few weeks either way, for instance, on some of our projects, might make all the difference. That's another thing, isn't it? The timing is absolutely key to it very often in getting that message across. It's not just about how you get the message across, what channels you're using, but it's also about when you do it and what you're saying when. Yeah. I like that.
SPEAKER_01:And just think about you, you can co-opt a kind of mythical public figure, if you like. Dare I say St. Nicholas was a mythical public figure. I'm talking about the Santa Claus Santa Claus element. That's Coca-Cola. Have seen how that brand has evolved and gone, oh well, it's in blue, it's in white, it's in brown, it's in green, it's in our colour's red, let's stick with that one. And just from that, so they've taken something that already existed, whacked it very heavily in their brand, and how synonymous is that particular kind of image of Father Christmas? It's just synonymous with with Coca-Cola, isn't it? Yeah, brilliant. And can we think of any other brands where they have some kind of mythical being as as their brand?
SPEAKER_02:It's got to be quantity. You've got one goblin. Oh yeah, they're oh they're br we've bought that, we've bought their beer in the past, I think it's because they're such cool look. Brilliant, brilliant.
SPEAKER_01:So there's loads of stuff out there. When people get stuck out of a brand, it's come on, the what the world is your lobster. You've got loads of stuff to choose from. You've got loads of uh elements and brands and ideas and figures that you can take inspiration from, but we get far too hung up on trying to find a cool word that hasn't already had a web domain named after it. Yeah. Yeah. So just let your imagination run right. Think about what's happened with with um St. Nicholas through to Father Christmas, through to Santa Claus, through to Coca-Cola.
SPEAKER_02:Brilliant. I love this. So now I'm feeling a little bit more Christmassy now, Taz. Just a bit, a tiny bit. We see that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I've got a Coca-Cola jingle that goes with the adverts with the lorry coming through. It's really stuck in my head. You've sung it already. Which just shows again the power of a good jingle. Oh. But what was I singing in the bathroom the other day, and I thought that's a cool song. What's that? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Do do, do do, do. Oh, it's our jingle. It's our jingle. I like the way you've linked that Christmas jingles. Do, doo do do. I was thinking, I recognise that. Oh, it's our jingle from Awesomebly Off Topic. It is. I found myself singing it. I thought, ooh, that's good, and I'm not sure. What's that? Oh, it's ours. You made a cracking one. But again, you see, you've just gone out and done that. You've been inspired by others that you've listened to, but you just went for it. And that's the other thing, as well, isn't it? About, you know, people, you've got to go for it. If you've got an idea, and it doesn't have to take forever to get it up and running. You can sometimes get something moving, getting it ready before you get it fully ready to go. But you can start working on things now. When you've got that idea, go for it, because soon you can lose that passion, that inspiration. Get on with it.
SPEAKER_01:Don't wait till it's perfect. Perfect does not exist. Just get on with it. Pobity's nerf. Pobity's nerf. And just finally, before we wrap, for all of you out there who have written a book, please, please, please remember, and I'm I'm gonna have to eat my own dog food here because I haven't done it enough this year. I need to ramp it up in the few weeks before the big day. For goodness sake, get out there with your with your book and start suggesting that it might make a really good gift for Christmas or for Yolabokaflaith.
SPEAKER_02:You just wanted to say that one more time, didn't you? I think I'm saying it right. Oh, we're gonna get somebody, I'm sure, from one of our um our international uh listeners, and we've got quite a few of those now, haven't you? Please tell me if I'm pronouncing it. Please tell us if we're yeah, tell us what the coronet is. Teach me to say the pronunciation is. It's made of smoke, it's a beautiful language. So um Taz will be practicing for next time, won't you? I will indeed. I will indeed. But in the meantime, have we got that tree to put up? But we've got to put the tree up and the decorations up. I've got to find some twinkly lights. Yeah. I'm just gonna wear them, you know. I'm just gonna wear them out.
SPEAKER_01:Last year's twinkly lights have been broken where the dogs have jumped on. They haven't even choked chewed through them. They've just jumped on the wire. They've just jumped on the wire and it went crap. So we need some more twinkly bits. We need some more twinkly bits. But in the meantime, in the meantime, please let us know if you're gonna do something to help, something to grow, something to feel, something to slow. Please message us and tell us you're taking part, and please share that message. Get it spinning all around the interweb. Let's get that going. And until this until next time, we will see you next Tuesday.
SPEAKER_02:You've been listening to Awesome Mear Off Topic. Follow or subscribe to make sure you don't miss the next one. We're Ashley Knillwater and Taz Thornton, and we'll be back soon.
