Norelco is the brand name used by Koninklijke Philips N.V. for its electric razors in the United States. Phillips was founded in 1891 in Eindhoven by Gerard Philips as company that made light bulbs. It was in 1939 that Philips expanded into the electric razor market, although they were unable to introduce their electric razors into the United States until 1948 due to World War II. Philips was prevented from using the "Philips" name in the United States by American electronics company Philco, who argued that the names of the two companies were similar enough to result in confusion. For the American market Philips then created the name Norelco, short for "North American Philips [electrical] Company." It was in 1981 that Philips bought Philco, thus allowing Philips to use their name in the United States if they chose to. Of course, by that time Norelco was a recognizable brand name in United States and as a result Philips would continue to use the name. It was in 2005 that Philips started branding their electric razors in the United States "Philips Norelco," in the first step in phasing out the "Norelco" name. As of 2022, however, their razors are still branded "Philips Norelco."
The Norelco stop-motion animation television commercials featuring Santa Claus first aired in 1961. There really isn't any information on the origin of the commercials to be found online. Norelco's advertising agency at the time was C. J. LaRoche & Company, so I would presume the idea for the ad originated in their offices. As to who actually created the stop-motion animation for the commercial, that remains a mystery. Because of its similarity to the stop-motion animation of the Rankin/Bass television specials, there are those who have assumed that they were responsible for the Norelco Santa Claus ads. That is not the case and, in fact, the first Norelco Santa Claus ad aired three years before Rankin/Bass's first Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (which debuted in 1964).
From the beginning the plot of the Norelco Santa Claus ads roughly remained the same. It featured Santa Claus riding an upside down electric razor attachment over a snowy landscape, usually with an instrumental version of "Jingle Bells" playing. Apparently in some of the earlier commercials there was a jingle, performed to the tune of "Jingle Bells," that went "Floating heads, floating heads, floating all the way/Norelco is the shaving gift to give on Christmas day." The commercials would end with "Norelco" spelled as "Noëlco," with the slogan, "Even our name says, 'Merry Christmas.'"
The Norelco Santa Claus ads proved popular from the beginning, and in the Sixties and Seventies were nearly ubiquitous. They aired during everything from NFL games to prime time programming. As Norelco razors would change over the years, the commercials would be updated from time to time. The Norelco Santa Claus commercials would be pulled in 1986 as Norelco decided to spend their advertising money on other campaigns. Viewers missed the Norelco commercials, however, so that in 1997 a new version of the Norelco Santa Claus commercial was introduced, this time done in computer animation rather than stop-motion. After a time the Norelco Santa Claus commercials would disappear again, only to be revived again in 2011.
The success of the Norelco Santa Claus commercials perhaps came down to two factors. The first is that when the commercials debuted in 1961, stop-motion animation was rarely seen on television and particularly not in commercials made for adults. The Norelco Santa commercials were then unlike anything else on the air at the time. The second is the sheer novelty of Santa Claus riding an oversized electric razor attachment across snowy hills. Whoever had the initial idea that the top of an electric razor resembles a sleigh had a stroke of genius.
Below is a collection of Norelco Santa commercials over the years.
I remember seeing these commercials on TV during my childhood in the 1960's.
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