Bill Backer was stuck in an airport. It was 1971, and a heavy fog had grounded all flights in Shannon, Ireland. People were annoyed. They were tired, losing their tempers, and generally miserable. But the next morning, Backer—a creative director at McCann-Erickson—noticed something weird. The same people who were snarling at each other the night before were now sitting together in the cafeteria, laughing and sharing stories over bottles of Coca-Cola.
He scribbled a note on a napkin. It said: "I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company."
That napkin was the birth of I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony). It wasn't just a jingle. It became a cultural phenomenon that blurred the lines between advertising and folk music. You've probably heard it a thousand times, but the story behind how a soda commercial became a chart-topping hit is actually kind of wild. It involves a hilltop in Italy, a bunch of skeptical British songwriters, and a last-minute scramble to save a failing radio spot.
The Song That Almost Didn't Happen
Honestly, the song nearly flopped before it even started. Backer took his napkin idea to his regular songwriting team, Billy Davis and Roger Cook. Roger Cook and his partner Roger Greenaway were the heavy hitters of the British songwriting scene at the time. They’d written hits for everyone. When Backer showed up with the "buy the world a Coke" line, the songwriters weren't exactly blown away. Davis apparently said, "Well, if I could do something for the world, I wouldn't buy it a Coke."
He wanted to do something more meaningful.
But they kept at it. They eventually hammered out the melody and the lyrics, focusing on this idea of global unity. The original version was recorded by The New Seekers, a British folk-pop group. It was released as a radio commercial in early 1971.
The result?
💡 You might also like: Songs by Tyler Childers: What Most People Get Wrong
Nothing. Nobody cared. People actually hated it in some markets. DJs were getting calls complaining about it. It looked like a total bust.
The Hilltop Ad That Changed Everything
Then came the visual. Coca-Cola decided to put some real money behind a TV version. They flew a massive group of young people from all over the world to a hilltop in Italy. This is the "Hilltop" ad you’ve seen in every marketing textbook ever written. It was expensive. Like, $250,000 expensive, which was unheard of for a commercial in 1971.
Bad weather hit again. It rained for days. The original cast was replaced. The budget spiraled.
But when that footage of diverse, smiling faces singing about peace and harmony hit the airwaves, something clicked. Suddenly, people weren't calling radio stations to complain. They were calling to ask where they could buy the record. There was just one problem: there wasn't a record. It was just a 60-second commercial.
Because the public demand was so high, the songwriters had to scramble. They stripped out the references to Coca-Cola, added some new verses about "snow-capped mountains" and "honey bees," and re-recorded it. Two versions actually hit the charts at the same time: one by The New Seekers and another by a studio group called The Hillside Singers.
Why It Hit So Hard in 1971
Context matters.
📖 Related: Questions From Black Card Revoked: The Culture Test That Might Just Get You Roasted
In 1971, the United States was a mess. The Vietnam War was dragging on, the country was politically fractured, and the idealistic "Summer of Love" era was fading into a cynical reality. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing offered a three-minute escape into a world where everyone just got along. It was pure, unadulterated optimism at a time when optimism was in short supply.
It’s easy to look back now and call it "corporate hippyism."
And, yeah, it was. It was a massive corporation using the visual language of the counter-culture to sell sugar water. But to the people listening then, it felt like a genuine anthem. The New Seekers' version reached Number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and Number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It sold over 12 million copies. That’s staggering for a song that started as a pitch for a soft drink.
The Song's Long Afterlife and Mad Men
If you’re a fan of the show Mad Men, you know the series ends with this song. It’s the perfect ending because it captures the cynical brilliance of advertising. Don Draper, after a spiritual breakdown, finds "enlightenment" and immediately turns it into a Coke ad.
It suggests that even our most "pure" desires for peace and love can be packaged and sold.
Is that depressing? Maybe. But it’s also the truth of how the song functioned. It was a bridge between the 1960s dream of a global village and the 1970s reality of mass-market consumerism. It turned a feeling into a product.
👉 See also: The Reality of Sex Movies From Africa: Censorship, Nollywood, and the Digital Underground
The Technical Side: Why the Melody Works
Musically, the song is dead simple. It uses a basic folk structure.
- It's in a comfortable, singable key.
- The intervals are easy for non-singers to follow.
- The "I'd like to..." hook repeats enough to get stuck in your brain without being (too) annoying.
It was designed to be a sing-along. Most "jingles" are too complex or too repetitive, but this one hit the sweet spot of sounding like a song you already knew, even the first time you heard it.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often think the song was a hit first and then Coke bought it. Nope. It was built from the ground up to sell soda. The "Coke" version and the "Sing" version are essentially the same DNA.
Another misconception is that it was an immediate success. As mentioned, the radio ad was a total flop initially. It required the visual "Hilltop" component to give the song its soul. Without those faces in the Italian sun, the lyrics felt a bit empty.
Legacy and Actionable Takeaways
So, what can we actually learn from a 50-year-old soda song?
If you're a creator or a marketer, it’s a masterclass in "Human-Centric" storytelling. Backer didn't start by thinking about the product's carbonation or price point. He started by observing a human moment—people connecting in a shitty situation at an airport—and scaled that feeling up.
How to apply this today:
- Observe the "In-Between" Moments: The best ideas don't come from boardrooms; they come from watching how people interact when things go wrong. Look for the "airport fog" in your own industry.
- Simplify the Message: If you can’t explain the "vibe" of your project in a single sentence like "I'd like to keep the world company," it’s probably too cluttered.
- Bridge the Gap: Find the intersection between what people want (peace, connection, harmony) and what you provide.
- Persistence over Perfection: The first version of this song failed. If they had given up after the first radio reports, we wouldn't be talking about it today. Don't pull the plug on a good idea just because the first medium you tried didn't work.
I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing remains the gold standard for "emotional" advertising. It proved that a commercial could be more than a pitch; it could be a piece of the culture. Even if you aren't a fan of the drink, it's hard to deny the power of a simple melody that, for a few minutes in 1971, made a lot of people feel like the world might actually be okay.
To really understand the impact, go back and watch the original 1971 "Hilltop" film. Pay attention to the casting and the lighting. It wasn't just about the song; it was about the carefully constructed image of a world without borders—a dream that, curiously enough, we are still trying to sell today.