By Suzanne Vranica And Amol Sharma
As AMC's drama "Mad Men" ended its seven-season run, viewers
watched adman Don Draper go through a bizarre and depressing
stretch, with confessional drinking, another meaningless hookup,
and sitting paralyzed by a pay phone.
After all that, did Don stumble upon the inspiration for
Coca-Cola's famous "Hilltop" commercial?
On Sunday night, the show's last episode ended on the famous
1971 Coke spot, in which about 500 young people from around the
world sing "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" on the Italian hills.
Though the writers of "Mad Men" didn't make it explicit, there was
a strong suggestion that Don, whose days as a creative advertising
genius seemed far behind him, got the idea from a spiritual retreat
in California.
The show's ending thrust back into the limelight the actual
creator of the ad, Bill Backer, one-time creative director on the
Coca-Cola account for McCann Erickson (which happens to be the ad
giant that bought Mr. Draper's firm on "Mad Men").
In an interview Monday, the 88-year-old said his phone has been
ringing off the hook, and he has been flattered by the attention.
He missed the show, as he stopped watching "Mad Men" after the
first two seasons.
"It became more of a soap opera," Mr. Backer said. "I don't mean
to insult the show. It just went away from advertising and didn't
show the stresses of the business."
Mr. Backer said the show did accurately portray the business
during that era. But he said that if he had actually followed Don
Draper's lifestyle--which he described as "bedding a different girl
every night"--he wouldn't have had time to make ads.
Mr. Backer created the "Hilltop" ad in 1971. He was flying to
London to meet colleagues to write some radio commercials, but fog
diverted the flight to Ireland. There, in an airport café, Mr.
Backer saw passengers exchanging stories and getting along while
sharing Cokes, a scene of multi-cultural harmony that inspired the
ad, according to an account on Coca-Cola's website. The filming had
a $250,000 budget, more than quadruple what a typical ad cost to
make back then, according to Coca-Cola.
The show's ending, which has renewed interest in the old
commercial, was the equivalent of a native ad for Coca-Cola--and a
powerful one at that. A spokesman for Coca-Cola Co. said the
company didn't pay for the ad, though it did give the show
permission to use it.
"We've had limited awareness around the brand's role in the
series' final episodes, and what a rich story they decided to
tell," Coca-Cola said.
The "Hilltop" ad was made when Coca-Cola's global expansion was
in full swing. These days, the company's chief executive describes
the macroeconomic climate as challenging, with weak sales in
Europe, China, Mexico and other foreign markets partly to blame for
2014 results that missed annual profit targets for the first time
in several years.
In the final sequence of "Mad Men," Don Draper appears to have a
moment of enlightenment. Sitting in lotus position and chanting
"Om" around others at a California ashram, he smiles. Cut to the
commercial.
Twitter lit up with the theory that Don's creative slump was
over, that it was he who dreamed up what would become an iconic
commercial. Still, the ending was vague enough to allow viewers to
believe whatever they want about Don Draper's future.
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