‘Tis the season for seasonal drinks like eggnog, cocoa, apple cider and, according to The Coca-Cola Company, Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry and Sprite Zero Sugar Winter Spiced Cranberry —  a popular limited-time flavor that has delivered year-over-year growth and usually sells out due to high demand.

Sprite today (Nov. 12) returns with its first new holiday campaign in three years, remixing “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” in a 60-second spot starring NBA star Anthony Edwards that launches this week and will air twice during the Christmas Day game between Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves and the Dallas Mavericks.

In “‘Twas the Night Before Spritemas,” Edwards takes over for Santa Claus (who’s out with a high-ankle sprain) and becomes “Anta Claus,” shooting and dunking 12-packs into chimneys to a soundtrack of a hip-hop version of “Carol of The Bells” and new prose by up-and-coming rapper Monaleo, continuing the brand’s longtime relationship with rap.

“We do a lot of social listening and we lean on our social team, our talent team and our entertainment marketing team to really help us figure out who is of the now,” said A.P. Chaney, senior creative director for sparkling flavors at Coca-Cola. “We always want to be authentic and representative of what our consumers are doing and who they're fans of.”

Extending through culture, digital

Along with its hip-hop bona fides, the campaign makes other cultural nods, turning Santa’s sleigh into a drop-top sports car and swapping reindeer for “wolfdeer” as revelers pass on eggnog (“more like egg-nah”) for Sprite’s seasonal flavor.

“[The ad] balances the masculinity with femininity as well as staying true to our DNA,” Chaney said. “We've stayed closely in-line to hip-hop and Black culture, so featuring [Monaleo] and using [Edwards] was the perfect pairing for this new holiday spot.”

Sprite also teamed with Memphis-based illustrator and activist Eso Tolson to create a custom font for the LTO’s packaging, in-store merchandising and other campaign elements. The collaboration speaks to Sprite’s continued commitment to elevating Black artists and creators — purpose-driven work that is persisting despite an industry-wide retreat on diversity and inclusion.

“We intentionally wanted to elevate every touch point of this campaign, starting with our packaging, to resonate with core consumers in a culturally relevant way,” said Brian Rogers, senior brand director for Sprite, in a statement. “Eso’s font projects personality, nuance and familiarity with a tightly-woven-together look that reinforces the importance of connection during the holiday season.”

The campaign also includes a collaboration with Gopuff for a “Spice Swap” activation that delivers complimentary samples of Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry for consumers who tag the brand on Instagram, continuing the type of digital activations that have extended previous Coca-Cola Company campaigns.

Obeying consumers

Edwards’s turn as Anta Claus follows several appearances in Sprite campaigns. The rising NBA talent first linked with the brand in 2022 for its “New Bottle, Same Sprite” effort before appearing this year in the refresh of an iconic “Obey Your Thirst” campaign that initially ran in 1994. His relationship with Sprite has coincided with his rising profile, both in the NBA and the Olympics, as well as a starring role in Netflix docuseries “Starting Five.”

“We really lucked up, for lack of a better term, in terms of the partnership, but he is truly what we go after in terms of talent — he’s audacious, authentic and unapologetically [himself], which is very true to the brand,” Chaney said of Edwards.

This year’s “Obey Your Thirst” campaign, which put Edwards in the role originally portrayed by NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill, has performed well in response metrics like brand affinity. It is also in line with industry-wide efforts that refreshed and rebooted classic slogans and advertising, including Gatorade’s “Is It In You?” tagline. 

“We are taking a different approach in terms of how we're really leaning into our consumer and refreshing it for today's audience, particularly Gen Z and Gen Alpha,” Chaney said of the campaign. “We really want to continue to amplify it, and in year two, we're going to go bigger and harder in terms of the creative.”