Coca-Cola Buy The World A Coke Commercial

Coca-Cola's pitch for peace, love and market share. Had Pan Am Flight 12 not been grounded due to fog in Ireland in the winter of 1971, "hilltop" may never have been. Copywriter Bill Backer jotted down on a paper napkin the theme line for the commercial after witnessing a large and varied group of passengers from the flight drinking Coke while dwelling on the circumstances of the flight. Moved by their coke inspired solidarity the idea was born for "Hilltop".
Writer-musicians Billy Davis and Roger Cook helped finish the lyrics and that spring on a hillside near Rome in Italy, the group of young people from around the world and clutched their bottles of Coke and lip-synched the words to the song.
The song was actually recorded in February by Eve Graham and the New Seekers. The song ran on radio spots first with very little success, foreign coca-cola bottlers initially rejected it and Coke actually considered scrapping the idea completely. But once the commercial aired on TV the reaction from the public was huge. The song and the visual from that Hilltop struck an emotional cord with us.

Coke said it received more than four thousand letters endorsing it, and many people complained the 60 second commercial was too short! Other bottlers from around the world asked for versions in their own language. A 45-rpm copy was produced of I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke and by the end of 1971 it sold over 1 million copies.
Coca-Cola's Hilltop commercial ran for six years - The greatest commercial ever!

"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 with perfect harmony
I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
I'd like to see the world for once all standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills for peace throughout the land.
That's the song I sing.
What the world wants today
A song of peace that echoes on and never goes away.
It's the real thing, what the world wants today"