SPOILER ALERT
Mad Men ended with a reshowing of the Coke
“I’d like to teach the world to sing” also known as “Hilltop” commercial. And
while the reason is ambiguous many people including my wife read it as Don,
inspired by his experience in Big Sur, has been reinspired and gone back to
McCann Erickson and written that ad.
Don, a man of the 50s, had been struggling
to come to terms with the 60s but it seems he has now got his mojo back and has
produced one of the seminal ads of its time. Ad Age rate it as #53 in its best ads of the century. But has he?
As my wife also reminded me, we never
liked that ad. It was cheesy and completely out of tune with 1971.
The ad is really a hangover from the Summer of Love in 1967. That was when eastern
religions, love and peace were at their height; when living in perfect harmony
and peace throughout the land was a believable ideal.
In the four years since then a lot
happened. There were the Vietnam War protests. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther
King’s assassinations (1968), The Chicago Democratic Convention (1968),the
election of Nixon (1969), the Rolling Stones Altamont concert (1969), Charles Manson and the
Sharon Tate murders (1969) the Kent State massacre that inspired Neil Young to
write Ohio.(1970).
The truth is the ideals of the Hilltop
commercial were long gone. There was a new grittiness and reality in the air.
1971 was a big year. All in the Family debuted. Big Movies included “A Clockwork Orange” and “Dirty
Harry”. The music we listened to included Led Zeppelin IV (“Stairway to
heaven”, Who’s Next (“Won’t get fooled again”), Marvin Gaye's "What’s Going On" and
David Bowie’s Hunky Dory (“Life on Mars”). The themes were alienation and rebellion,
cynicism and dystopias. Woodstock, which was the last gasp of hippie culture, was
in 1969 and even there the star was Jimi Hendrix, who later that year penned the incredible "Machine Gun". His hard-edged brand matched the new reality
rather than the Summer of Love influenced Jefferson Airplane.
Even Coke had a hard time. It’s ideals of happiness
and innocence were out of touch with the 70s. Pepsi discovered the 60s well
before Coke with its “Choice of New Generation” in 1965 and with the Pepsi
Taste Challenge became a real competitor in the 70s. Coke and McCann struggled through this period.
If Don did write ‘Hilltop’ he had certainly
moved on from the suits and cigarettes of the 50s. And he has created a great
piece of storytelling and television. But sadly for him, just as he comes to
terms with the 60s the rest of the world has moved into the 70s. His theme soing is not "I'd like to teach the world to sing" but the Rolling Stones
'Out of time'.
You don't know what's going on
You've been away for far too long
You can't come back and think you are still mine
You're out of touch, my baby
You've been away for far too long
You can't come back and think you are still mine
You're out of touch, my baby