Coca-Cola brings ‘Real Magic’ to screens with captivating new Christmas films

Coca-Cola has unveiled a new short film anthology, ‘The Santa Stories’, further spreading its ethos of ‘Real Magic’ and human connection this holiday season.

The global beverage brand has tapped world-class Hollywood talent, award-winning Transformers: Rise of the Beasts director and screenwriter Steven Caple Jr. and The Mandalorian director Bryce Dallas Howard, to bring epic cinematic vision to two new short films.

Developed and produced in collaboration with WPP Open X led by VML, Imagine Entertainment and PRETTYBIRD, ‘The Santa Stories’ has been released on Prime Video via Prime Video Direct, Amazon Freevee and Coca-Cola’s YouTube channels.

Each film is a reminder of the Santa Claus in all of us and reimagines the representation of Santa in a different way:

• ‘The Note’ (directed by Bryce Dallas Howard) stars Irish actor Colm Meaney as the lead protagonist, ‘The No Man’, whose festive goodwill is restored by a mystery message in a bottle.
• ‘Ho Ho Heist’ (directed by Steven Caple Jr.) stars Academy Award winning American actor, Octavia Spencer, Screen Actors Guild Award winning actor, Scoot McNairy and is a heist-thriller in which Santa finds himself in jail.

This is Coca-Cola’s latest offering of branded entertainment content, following the release of its anthology series last Christmas. ‘The Santa Stories’ forms part of the brand’s wider Christmas marketing campaign ‘The World Needs More Santas’, illustrating how real magic multiplies when people embrace their ‘inner Santa’ – the spirit of kindness, generosity and goodwill.

“Stories have the superpower to move people and inspire change. With these short films we wanted to give more depth to Coca-Cola’s storytelling with authentic narratives we’ve not explored before,” Islam ElDessouky, global head of creative strategy and content, Coca-Cola, said.

“Santa is so interlinked with the history of Coca-Cola that we could see a wonderful opportunity to explore another imaginative dimension for what he represents, that people don’t expect to see.”