Santa to turn blue in Pepsi Xmas stunt

Pepsi is threatening to turn Santa Claus blue this Christmas as part of its PR and marketing campaign surrounding the worldwide switch to the blue can.

The plans to change the colour of Father Christmas’s familiar red suit follows the feverish activity earlier this year for Project Blue, the much-hyped brand relaunch which is said to be costing the soft drinks giant $500m (300m).

The move would be an ironic salute to its great rival Coca-Cola, which is often credited with creating the modern-day, red-tunic look of Santa with an ad campaign created between the wars.

Teaser campaigns for Pepsi ran in March through its agency Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO on the red-to-blue theme, and featured blue Labour rosettes, blue pillar boxes and blue tomato ketchup bottles.

A Pepsi spokesman says he has no information about such a move, while Pepsi’s PR agency, Freud, denies it is working on the project.