I’D LIKE TO BUY THE WORLD A COKE

31 August 1900. Coca-Cola first went on sale in Britain.

I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke

January 18, 1971 Bill Backer, creative director on the Coca-Cola account for the McCann Erickson advertising agency, was flying to London to meet up with Billy Davis, the music director on the Coca-Cola account, to write radio commercials with two successful British songwriters, Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, to be recorded by the New Seekers, a popular British singing group. [This great song was written in almost 24 hours and campaign’s directors tried to film the clip as quickly as the song.] The new budget eventually topped $250,000, a staggering amount in that era.

Davis allowed a group of studio singers to record the new song lyric to "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke." They called themselves "The Hillside Singers" in order to identify with the TV image. Within two weeks of the release of the Hillside Singers recording, it was on the national charts. Two weeks after that, Davis was able to convince the New Seekers to find the time and record their version of "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony)," the new title for the song version of "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke."

He took them to the studio on a Sunday and produced the record which became the Top 10 hit, followed by the Hillside Singers' version as No. 13 on the pop charts. The song was recorded in a wide range of languages and sold more sheet music than any song in the previous 10 years. The Coca-Cola Company donated the first $80,000 in royalties earned from the song by writers and publishers to UNICEF under an agreement with the writers.

Creating the ad