Many of you who have read my posts and articles in the past know that I see content marketing lessons everywhere.

Well, in this article today, I want to share an important content marketing lesson for those of you who don’t consider yourselves a content creator.

How Apple TV+ Got Charlie Brown Fans Upset

2020 almost gave us another reason to wish it was over sooner than later.

Back in October, it was announced that  Apple TV+ had purchased rights to the “Great Pumpkin”, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” TV specials.

That meant that for the first time since 1965, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” would not air on public television.

Apple TV+ probably thought that they had made a great move to provide their subscribers such beloved TV specials.

What they probably hadn’t anticipated was the backlash from people who aren’t subscribers and who are so used to seeing it every year.

For that reason, Apple decided in November that they would allow “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to be aired on December 13th on PBS stations. (Click here, if you want to know how to watch it.)

All this controversy made me think again about something surprising I learned about the origin of this beloved children’s special. And that discovery, lead me to an important content marketing lesson that I wrote about back in 2014.

That is what I want to share with you below…

The Surprising Origin of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’

I love “A Charlie Brown Christmas” special.

I love watching it every year with my 3 sons.

But I just found out something about the special that I didn’t know.

The most famous Christmas cartoon of all time wasn’t Charles Schulz’s idea.

It was Coca-Cola’s idea.

You see,  Lee Mendelson and Charles Schulz wanted to do a TV special featuring Charlie Brown, but it wasn’t about Christmas.

It was going to be about baseball.

In fact, they made the pilot of “the world’s worst baseball player” (Charlie Brown), but the network rejected it.

That’s when Coca-Cola stepped in.

They approached Mendelson to see if they could create a Peanuts Christmas special.

He and Schulz hadn’t considered such a show and didn’t  have anything prepared, but they seized the opportunity.

They quickly crafted a simple, single-page creative treatment and presented it to Coke.

According to Ted Ryan, director of Heritage Communications at The Coca-Cola Company…

“The next day, Coke sent Schulz and Mendelson the following telegram:
‘CONFIRM SALE OF CHARLIE BROWN FOR CHRISTMAS TO COCA-COLA FOR DECEMBER BROADCAST AT YOUR TERMS WITH OPTION ON SECOND SHOW FOR NEXT SPRING. GOOD GRIEF!‘”

The Show Almost Didn’t Air

As popular as the show is these days, this might be hard to believe, but the show almost didn’t make it on air.

 According to Smosh.com…

“The network hated the idea of a religious message in a Christmas TV special. They hated that the special wasn’t non-stop action interrupted with gales of fake laughter (as if cartoons would actually have a live studio audience).

“They didn’t like the soundtrack, thought the kid voiceover actors sounded too much like children, and would rather have played a needle scratch than jazz music. Things got so bad that even the special’s producers and Charlie Schulz (not known for having a cheery outlook to begin with) thought the cartoon would be a critical and commercial bomb. 

“In fact, everyone was thinking of simply scrapping the show altogether…except for Cocoa-Cola, who was the special’s main sponsor and was not about to let a half-hour of advertising not make it to air.“

Where Are the Coke Ads in the Show?

The ads for Coca-Cola have been removed from the special over the years, so you won’t see them when you watch it today.

So where were they in the original?

Ted Ryan says that the only Coca-Cola messages were “title slides telling viewers that the production was made possible by the support of the local bottlers around the country.”

Here is a video clip of the title slides mentioning Coca-Cola… 

Here’s a still of the slide mentioning Coke...

Why I Consider the Original Show Content Marketing

Most people think of content marketing as content that focuses on a particular business that is creating that content.

Many times that is true.

But the most powerful content marketing can be content that isn’t focused directly on your business at all.

As I revealed in a ContentMarketingInstitute.com post I did called “4 Illuminating Lessons From One of History’s Most Inventive Content Marketers“…

“Create content that your prospects and customers want — especially if it isn’t focused on your business: You must not only create great content, but you must also create content that your desired target group is craving and searching for. And this might seem counterintuitive, but the most powerful kind of content for you to create might actually be content that doesn’t directly focus on your business or industry at all.”

Do you want proof that it was content that marketed Coca-Cola effectively?

The original episode was such a powerful piece of content that Coca-Cola received thank you letters for sponsoring the special.

A Content Marketing Lesson for You

You might have thought you couldn’t use content marketing because you’re not a content creator of any kind.

Well, now you know that you can harness the power of content marketing without actually creating it.

You can hire content creators to create content for your business.

It doesn’t have to be someone at the level of Charles Schulz.

There are many content creators out there who would gladly create content for you.

Or maybe you thought, “No one really cares about content related to my business.”

Well, now you know that the content doesn’t have to directly focus on your business or industry.

It just needs to be content that resonates with your audience. That’s the key.

That’s what Coca-Cola did. 

And the result is content that was so popular that it still resonates with people 55 years later.

Stay Tuned

If you like Christmas and content marketing, then make sure to check back this week (or just subscribe below).

Because I will be posting some other articles that will reveal some other content marketing lessons that are related to Christmas.

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