I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke

The video is taken from a Coca Cola commercial played in the early 1970s in which Coke’s advertising company, McCann-Erikson, got a team of multicultural people to stand atop a hill and sing a brand new song written by Bill Backer, Billy Davis and Roger Cook entitled “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke.”



Lyrics:
I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.
I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,
I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
It’s the real thing, Coke is what the world wants today.

As this is my first review. I will explain a bit more about the history of this video before getting into my thoughts. I feel the back story behind this video helps. More after the break.

However the origins of this marketing success began in quite an odd way. The time is 1971 and the three creative writers for the new coca cola marketing push were together on an airplane heading for the UK. Their destination, London, was close within reach but due to troublesome weather, the group had an unexpected overnight stop over in Ireland. Along with the three musketeers were several other passengers who were forced to stop over in Ireland. It was then Backer, Davis and Cook witnessed a revelation. Workers at the Irish airport were handing out Coca Cola to the stopped-over passengers as part of a compensation for delaying their flight.

*Click* went the light bulb in their heads. Coca Cola is a drink to bring people together. “Let’s keep each other company for a while” seemed to be the general impression people had gotten from the refreshing taste of this cola. With a pen and napkin in hand, soon enough Backer began to write, saying, “I could see and hear a song that treated the whole world as if it were a person—a person the singer would like to help and get to know. I’m not sure how the lyric should start, but I know the last line.”

The song first aired on radio, disliked by the Coca Cola company and the mass media as it had no garnered much attention and was downright invisible. This might be due to the few times it was actually aired perhaps. As much as the song was hated, Backer kept going back to Coca Cola emphasizing the need for visual appeal and that the song in a commercial form would be much more successful. Approving Backer’s passion with a $250,000 budget, Backer began filming and when the TV commercial was released in the United States, it gained huge success.

But why!? Why did it gain such massive appeal? Perhaps it was the medium of communication. Why did this jingle fail as a radio tune and succeed as a commercial? Was it simply a visual medium?

Perhaps this is why: [take from the Coca Cola Company website]

THE COMMERCIAL:

“Hilltop” is the first historical ad ever to be restored in High Definition (HD). It can still be viewed by the public as it was donated to the Library of Congress in Washington DC in 2000.

The international cast included actors from more than 20 countries.

The opening scene was shot at a horse racetrack outside of Rome forcing unusual camera angles during the opening scene as the director tried to avoid having telephone wires in the background of the shots; the rest of the commercial was shot on the hilltop.
Within 10 days of the U.S. release of “Hilltop,” The Coca-Cola Company received 10,000 letters from consumers thanking the Company for the message in the ad. Consumers also called television stations asking when the commercial was scheduled to air.
Fifteen original cast members of the “Hilltop” commercial reprised their roles for a reunion ad, which launched the “Can’t Beat the Real Thing” campaign during Super Bowl XXIV, Jan. 28, 1990 (CBS Sports).

The lead singer, a British nanny working in Rome, was discovered two days before the final shoot by producers while pushing a baby carriage. She declined the opportunity at first, but was finally persuaded to take the role. The original lead singer eloped during the production in Italy.

As the last lines of the song say, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company. It’s the real thing, Coke is what the world wants today.” In an age where multiculturalism was at its beginnings, this song helped tie in the idea that Coke saw the world as whole. The world was revealed as intercultural, international and showed that Coke was for everyone. It was a refreshing drink that emphasized that although people were different, everyone’s love for Coke is the same. Perhaps this was a message that could not be delivered through sound alone. Actually seeing the different cultures collide and be united by a single product in such a happy way may have paved the way for Coca Cola’s international success.

Now of course, I’m no expert and my general impression of watching this video tells me that this video was one of the early adopters of this global influence our world is having. It’s one of the few memorable videos that show despite location, despite skin colour, despite beliefs, everyone can enjoy the same product and have common ground from which to build on.

Or perhaps I’m reading into it too much?

Links to more info on this commercial:
Coca Cola Official Website
Coca Cola Television Advertisements