The 1971 Coca-Cola ad implied by Don Draper’s final scene in Mad Men is “Hilltop.”
The series finale, “Person to Person,” ends with Don meditating at a California retreat. The scene cuts to Coca-Cola’s famous 1971 “Hilltop” commercial, best known for its multicultural chorus singing “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke.” The juxtaposition strongly suggests that Don has transformed his experience at the retreat into the advertising concept.
The ending deliberately avoids showing Don pitching or writing the commercial, so the show leaves room for interpretation. Many viewers, along with Jon Hamm and representatives associated with McCann Erickson and Coca-Cola, read the sequence as implying that Don created the campaign after returning to advertising. Other critics emphasize that creator Matthew Weiner intentionally preserved ambiguity.
In real advertising history, the commercial was created by McCann Erickson creative executive Bill Backer. That detail connects the finale to the show’s fictional timeline: Don is working at McCann when the series ends. The ad’s real-world existence therefore makes the finale feel historically grounded while keeping Don’s precise role unresolved.