Not sure how to feel about this one ... Kris Kringle is a'bloggin'. A project of Five Star Experience (a Toronto-based "experience company" specializing in unusual gift certificate combos like Adrenaline or Tranquility), Santa is blogging and podcasting at santasjournal.com. From Five Star Experience's own blog:
FSE is proud to announce that it will sponsor Santa Clause this holiday season as he blogs and podcasts to the world for the first time.
Santa will be writing a journal highlighting the latest events at the North Pole as he and his team of elves prepare to bring joy to the children of the world.
His blog will be available as a podcast so that children who cannot read yet can still stay up to date.
Interesting idea. Using the man-in-red in a character blog. FSE is promoting their own product line on the blog .. though mercifully not on the homepage. But I don't know .. the tone of it is weird - like people who don't know how to write for kids, thinking that writing for kids means dumbing it down. I also listened to the podcast; the quality is pretty shitty. Which as a kid I totally would not put up with or buy into.
The blog also includes a syndicated story with the final installment being released on Christmas day. (Personally I don't think the content would sustain my interest that long.) There is a game and you can email Santa your wish list. I didn't bother.
I think this whole enterprise might work better if they didn't choose Santa. Santa is difficult to appropriate (really, has anyone done it better than Coca-Cola). If you want to go with a character blog ... own the character. Maybe a reindeer? Or the elf who is in charge of the email? Also, you really have to have good content.
One interesting thing ... Santa does provide details of the inner workings of the North Pole: list management, monitoring boys and girls behaviour, etc. I would have totally geeked out on this content as a kid.
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