The Coca Cola Hilltop Ad - Wonder ensemble

"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a popular song which originated as the jingle "Buy the World a Coke" in the amazing 1971 "Hilltop" television commercial for Coca Cola... This one commercial is considered as one of those path breaking ads that paved the way for Coke ascend to brand stardom .

 "Buy the World a Coke" portrayed a positive message of hope and love sung by a multicultural ensemble of teenagers on the top of a hill. "Buy the World a Coke" repeated "It's the real thing" as Coca-Cola's marketing theme at the time and that made the trick... but wait- the story is full of twists, the TV ad was not the one that came first , the song was first made and then released as a radio commercial in 1971. 

Bill Backer, of McCann-Erickson — the agency for Coca-Cola endured this idea during a delayed flight and then the rest is history , it is said that the radio commercial was not a hit and yet Bill Baker convinced his agency to make a TVC out of the song and then the rest is history .  

The TVC directed by Roberto Malenotti had its share of issues which sounds quite strange when one sees it from today. The first shooting was spoiled by rain and many many location issues.  Made for $250,000 - a huge price then was first aired in July 1971, this had a multicultural group of young people singing the song on a hill . The global unity of the singers is emphasized by showing that the bottles of Coke they are holding are labelled in a variety of languages. Another version shows the same group in the night with candles in hand and that in a long shot resembles the Xmas tree and hence used for many years as an ad that would appear during Xmas !

Many years down the line and many re incarnations later , the original Hill Top ad is still the best and a must see and ponder wonder for ad students and practitioners alike ....

Salutes to the master brains that worked to make this wonder possible...