What was the name of Coca-Cola’s 1971 global advertising song that invited the world to sing together?
Answer
I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke
Coca-Cola’s 1971 global advertising song was “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke.”
The song appeared in a Coca-Cola television commercial commonly known as “Hilltop,” filmed on a hillside outside Rome. The advertisement showed a multicultural group of young people singing together and presenting Coca-Cola as a symbol of harmony. Its central lyric expressed the wish to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
The commercial became one of the best-known advertising campaigns of the twentieth century. The song was later recorded as “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” by The New Seekers and the Hillside Singers, with the commercial version inspiring the expanded song title and lyrics.
The advertising line is often confused with later Coca-Cola slogans such as “Have a Coke and a Smile” and “Open Happiness.” Those campaigns belong to different periods; the world-singing theme specifically identifies the 1971 Hilltop advertisement.