Beautifully detailed Italian Sprite Boy 1955
In the early 1940s the ‘Sprite Boy’, an elf-like cartoon figure, made his appearance in magazine ads for Coca-Cola. He was created to help associate the term ‘Coke’ with Coca-Cola. (For some time, the company fought the idea of using the word Coke to refer to Coca-Cola.) The Sprite Boy wore two hats, a bottle cap and a soda jerk’s hat, to represent Coke in the bottle and Coke at the soda fountain.
French Canadian sprite boy 1944
There was a vogue for elfin figures in advertising. Kellog had three little elves, Snap, Crackle and Pop, to promote Rice Bubbles. Esso used a little white sprite figure whose head, in the shape of a pale yellow drop of oil, also had the same upswept hair style. The Coca Cola Sprite Boy was created by staff artist Haddon Sundblom,
Official ‘repro’ decal for soda machine
also responsible for the iconic Coca Cola Father Christmas.
Happy Christmas
From rusty signs in small town America
Causeyville, Mississipi
to Main Street
Sprite Boy as apparition
and on to the world of antiques and collectibles
Plywood die-cut sign, 1940s
the Sprite Boy has taken on a life well beyond his advertising career, a kind of Robin to the Batman of Father Christmas. The Sundblom version of Father Christmas defines our vision of him, exported to the world as the red-suited gent, courtesy of Coca Cola.
Ink blotter 1950s
In the same way, the Sprite Boy has become a minor icon in his own right, not only connected with his beverage,
US collectible phone card
though he has been enlisted for non-commercial work before now.
War Sprite Boy 1943
(from History of Coca Cola in Brasil at http://jipemania.com/coke/1940/ )
The Sprite Boy was generally disembodied, only hands and face showing
1948 Walter Lantz animation, never produced
and seeming to take on the characteristics of the host country.
The Sprite Boy in Belgium
The Sprite Boy in Mexico
The Sprite Boy in France
Endorsed by the Italian Navy?
I recall him as a decal on the glass door of the Flash Gelateria in Hindley Street in downtown Adelaide in the 1970s. As for his product, I remember being thrilled in the 1960s to win a whole crate of Coke as a prize in an essay competition. And afterwards I could take the bottles to the local ‘deli’ (shop) to claim the deposit. The essay? It was about my visit with the school to … the Coca Cola bottling plant. We treasured such things as branded bottle openers from these visits too … we had some from small local competitor Woodroofe’s, makers of Woodie’s Lemonade, another childhood elixir.
No Sprite
In business terms, the Coke Sprite Boy advertises the reliability of his product. Just as with Macdonald’s, you know what you’re getting.
Quality Sprite Boy
He is to be trusted.
Stencilled Sprite Boy tin sign, US auction
Or is he? An internet search suggests that he is generally regarded with affectionate nostalgia, a reminder of a bygone innocence, but some http://jadetora.blogspot.com.br/ find the image repulsive, in much the same way as clowns have become a ‘scary’ image.
Outliving the physical artefacts,
Early 1950s Sprite Boy – http://www.flickr.com/photos/mshutch/4220129536/
the image has its own appeal and goes on with its own life in our collective memories. Where have you seen the Sprite Boy?
theproverbial.org 