Darrell’s mural is the real thing!
A Derby artist has created a Christmas-themed mural in the city.
The artwork, painted on a garage wall in Monk Street, depicts a Coca-Cola-style festive truck.
The vehicle has become a familiar sight since first appearing in the drinks brand’s TV advert in 1995, with the “holidays are coming” soundtrack.
The truck usually tours around the UK in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. With this year’s tour cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, artist Darrell Wynne wanted to find a way to still bring the truck to the city.
The 30-year-old, who is known as “Soap”, says he grew up watching the advert each festive season.
revealing the inspiration for the design, Darrell said: “I always try and bring a bit of nostalgia to my work so everyone can relate, but also have an insight of the things I like.
“The Coca-Cola truck and Toys r Us adverts played a big part in the build-up to Christmas as a kid.
“The inspiration for the CocaCola truck was because of Covid. It isn’t running this year so, as a bit of fun, I said it has parked in Derby this year.
“My name came from staring at the Andy Warhol soup can every day while eating my dinner at my mum and dad’s house - the letters used to stick in my head so I changed soup to soap. Soapa Cola is a play on words. I’ve always had a brain that can naturally make words out of stuff instantly.”
And the line ‘don’t eat yellow snow’? Darrell explained: “The joke my dad used to tell me as a kid.”
The mural is not the first piece of artwork to appear on the garage wall in Monk Street. In October, another city artist Lee Short produced a piece titled ‘Halloween is cancelled’, which depicted a scary character holding a tub of sweets, with each sweet wrapper displaying a different symptom of Covid-19.