Coca-Cola is betting on one of its oldest advertising messages to create a new feeling of harmony among a consumer group often divided by controversy.
In a new ad scheduled to be released during Monday night’s telecast of the NCAA March Madness Championship Game between the University of Connecticut and the University of Michigan, the beverage giant will unveil a modern version of the famous “I’d like to buy the world a Coke,” first heard in the classic 1971 commercial, which shows young people on a hill singing a joke about buying a Coke to promote world peace. In this case, the singers focus on “America” rather than the world as a whole.
The spot aims to get people to associate Coca-Cola with America’s 250th anniversary, which is celebrated on July 4th.
“It felt like an important moment to say the right thing,” Alex Ames, Coca-Cola’s senior director of content and creative excellence, said in a recent interview. “We think this could be done a lot this year, and maybe even beyond,” he added.
Coca-Cola is doing something that only a few advertisers can do. In other words, they’re unearthing an archive of decades-old promotional material that resonates with an audience that doesn’t have much of the pop culture that most people are aware of. Advertising campaigns in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s shocked audiences at a time when there were fewer media platforms to choose from, increasing the likelihood that the jingles, slogans, and scenes of these efforts would resonate with a large portion of potential soda buyers.
In 2019, the Coke Company chose to revive one of its most controversial marketing decisions, the ill-fated 1985 New Coke launch. In the second round, scenes from New Coke were part of Season 3 of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” and the company released about 500,000 cans of New Coke to the public.
Such things are often instantly recognizable as Americana and can give Coca-Cola an edge in differentiating itself from new products and services that are frequently advertised, such as online gambling sites like FanDuel and weight loss pills like Ozempic and Wegovy.
An interesting case is where an advertiser of a trendy product relies on past popular ads. Ozempic, manufactured by Novo Nordisk, recently launched a campaign that relies on the popular series of “Mac vs PC” commercials that Apple used to poke fun at rival Microsoft in the mid-2000s. The pharmaceutical giant even hired actors Justin Long and John Hodgman, who appeared in old campaigns.
Reviving a “Hilltop” song with a new spin is no easy feat. In fact, Ames says executives weren’t even thinking about the song when they first started working on the project. Initially, documentary filmmakers were sent across America to film scenes where Coca-Cola was already part of American culture, such as where it had served as a billboard for years. “There’s not a single Coca-Cola brand in there. They’re all billboards that exist all over the world. It’s a great reminder of how much the brand is loved across the country. Our mission was to find examples of Coca-Cola in nature, so to speak,” says Ames. The filmmakers “went out into the field and tried to find these real magical moments.”
When Ames and his team set out to set their collection of images to music, they tested everything from ’70s rock to modern blues. “Nothing felt right.” Eventually, they realized the right song had been right in front of them all along.
The “Hilltop” ad is one of Madison Avenue’s most legendary concepts. Produced by the agency formerly known as McCann Erickson, the commercial is one of those TV ads that transcended sales pitch to become a landmark in American culture — think Apple’s famous “1984” commercial or Budweiser’s “Wassup!” campaign. Featuring the lyrics, “I wanna teach the world how to sing / In perfect harmony / I wanna buy the world a coke / And stay with me / That’s what’s real,” the song proved so popular for its message that it became a popular radio hit.
Its real origins came from an effort by McCann executives to create a radio jingle sung by the British singing group the New Seekers. According to a history of the commercial posted on Coca-Cola’s website, McCann’s creative director Bill Bakker was traveling to London for a session when heavy fog forced his plane to land in Ireland. Bakker witnessed a group of disgruntled passengers settling down with snacks and cokes, and the germ of an idea was born.
Cora bathed in this well several times. In the mid-1970s, the company used the song to create a holiday-themed commercial that showed the singer holding a candle at night. In 1991, the company ran a TV commercial during Super Bowl XXV that showed the original singer performing the song again with his family and children in tow. In 2005, singer G. Love provided Coca-Cola Zero with a new version of the song.
And the company has spent a lot of time in recent commercials trying to portray its flagship drink as something that’s welcome anywhere, no matter who wants to drink it. A recent campaign shows Coca-Cola being poured at three locations in 13 different fast food restaurants, from Popeyes to Panda Express. Coca-Cola is a sponsor of both the NCAA March Madness Tournament and the upcoming World Cup, which draws millions of spectators from around the world to watch a single event. “One thing people can agree on is Coca-Cola is a brand they love,” Ames says. “And that’s kind of the finish line we’re aiming for this year.”
Coca-Cola found new singers for the song from people from all walks of life, Ames said. This is another attempt to show that people from different backgrounds are united. “This is not a choir,” Ames says. “These are teachers, musicians, random people” – about 30 people in all. “It was almost unmade. They created this song together.”
Multiple versions of the same song exist in the history of popular music, from Jimi Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” to Miley Cyrus’ version of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” Will Coca-Cola be able to hit the streaming charts with a new version of its popular advertising jingle? The new version is available on Spotify. “This is a real earworm,” Ames says.
