If you were alive in the early '70s, you knew the ad. Even if you weren't, you probably do: "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" was such a hit upon its Feb. 12, 1971, debut that radio DJs were flooded with calls to play it, "as if it were a song by The Doors or the Jackson 5," notes the Washington Post. It was the brainchild of Bill Backer, who died Friday in Warrenton, Va., at age 89. The tributes are pouring in for the man whose most famous ad featured into the final scene in the series finale of Mad Men. Among the coverage:
- The Coca-Cola Company's website has a detailed explainer of how Backer dreamed up the ad while stuck overnight in Shannon, Ireland, and the challenges of the commercial shoots.
- The Daily Beast reports the commercial's $250,000 price tag made it the most expensive to have been filmed at the time.
- The New York Times runs down some of Backer's other famous lines, for Miller Lite, Campbell's Soup, and Oreo.
- He also now-memorably inserted Dave Thomas into Wendy's commercials, notes Ad Age.