Hasta La Ideas

For a few years now, it’s become a bit of a thing to have an ironic Christmas jumper. Usually featuring slightly ridiculous Christmassy motifs, it is a garment that can only be worn in public along with a knowing grin. This year, Coca-Cola is encouraging the public to get competitive with their Christmas jumper designs, via the use of the ‘Coke Zero Sweater Generator’…

The Sweater Generator is a straightforward concept: a website where users can use simple tools to design their own Christmas jumper, which comes complete with a little bit of Coke branding on the waistband. Once finished, your design will enter a gallery on the site, where other users can vote on it until December 1 – the top 100 designs will then be knitted and sent to the creators.

Below are some of the designs already submitted, so you know what you are up against. (At this point, I should say that the competition is only open to residents of the USA. Boo! We in the UK want a sweater generator too! Although we would call it a jumper generator, of course.)

The site is by ad agency Droga5 New York, and it is the latest example of an advertising Christmas knitwear trend that has also been running for a few years. Back in 2011, artist Andrew Salamone set up shop with his knitting machine in the KK Outlet in London, where he created a series of alternative Christmas jumpers, designed by the likes of Anthony Burrill and Geneviève Gauckler. And in 2008, Moving Brands encouraged people to submit designs for the Weare Scarf project: these were then turned into a knitted scarf that was sent out as a gift to clients and friends. As far as we know though, Coke are the first major brand to get on board with the Christmas knitting fun: you can play with site online at cokezero.com/sweatergenerator.

For those Christmas jumper fans that live in the UK, you get the chance to express yourself through knitwear on December 13, when Save the Children is holding Christmas Jumper Day. To raise money for the charity, they suggest you wear your wildly designed jumper for the day, and also give a pound to the charity. More info is here.

Coke Zero Sweater Generator credits:
Agency: Droga5
Creative chairman: David Droga
Chief creative officer: Ted Royer
Creative director: Tim Gordon
Creatives: Chris Colliton, Kevin Weir