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The Vietnam War divided America in the late 1960s, while the Civil Rights movement confronted racial injustice and Cold War tensions threatened nuclear conflict.
Coca-Cola seized the moment with their "It's the Real Thing" campaign, most notably in their "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" commercial, which packaged the era's yearning for peace and harmony into a marketing message.
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In 1969, while protesters marched against the Vietnam War and astronauts landed on the moon—American supermarket shelves started stocking new brands.
Pepsi's sales climbed steadily, challenging Coca-Cola's decades-long market dominance.
Royal Crown Cola captured 4.3% of the market share, while local bottlers sold their niche products in different regions.
Pepsi's television commercials showed young people dancing on beaches and at parties, always with Pepsi in hand.
Their "Pepsi Generation" slogan connected with teenagers and college students who felt disconnected from their parents' preferences.
The campaign helped Pepsi double its market share between 1960 and 1969.
Coca-Cola responded by launching "It's the Real Thing" in the summer of 1969.
The campaign's first television commercial showed a grandfather and grandson sharing a Coke on their front porch, emphasizing the drink's 83-year history.
Print ads featured the classic glass bottle against simple backgrounds.
Americans in 1969 questioned what was authentic in their changing world—from processed foods to political promises.
Coca-Cola positioned its drink as something unchanging and trustworthy.
A glass of Coke in 1969 tasted the same as it had in 1886.
The campaign worked.
By 1972, Coca-Cola's market share grew to 42% while Pepsi remained at 28%.
The slogan survived for decades.
Between 1961 and 1971, America transformed.
College students occupied university buildings to protest the Vietnam War.
Civil rights marchers faced police dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham.
Over 400,000 young people gathered in the mud at Woodstock, sharing music and opposing a war that killed 58,000 Americans.
Wanting to ride the trend, Coca-Cola aired its "Hilltop" commercial in 1971.
The commercial showed an Asian woman in a blue kimono, a Black man in a dashiki, a white teenager in bell-bottoms.
Together they stood on an Italian hillside, singing "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" while holding glass bottles of Cola in their hands.
The lyrics echoed "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony."
The commercial showed 65 international performers, chosen to represent a world without borders or conflict—much like the "One World" philosophy championed at Woodstock two years earlier.
The New York Times praised its "message of unity," while underground newspapers like the Berkeley Barb called it "cultural theft."
Folk singer Pete Seeger specifically criticized how the commercial "turned peace into a soft drink."
But the 60-second commercial transformed a Coca-Cola into a peace symbol.
Coca-Cola's "It's the Real Thing" campaign of the 1970s extended beyond its famous hilltop commercial.
The campaign launched in 1969 with a series of TV spots that captured specific moments of American life.
The "Ice Pick" commercial showed teenagers skateboarding, playing guitar, and sharing Cokes at a backyard barbecue.
"Street Song" intercut footage of 1970s city scenes—children playing hopscotch, shopkeepers opening their stores—with black-and-white clips from the 1950s showing soda fountains and family picnics.
In "Boomerang," a upbeat pop melody accompanied scenes of travelers drinking Coca-Cola in locations from Times Square to the Grand Canyon, ending with them returning home to share another Coke with family.
The "Football" commercial depicted parents cheering from metal bleachers, players taking water breaks between plays, and families sharing Cokes during tailgate parties.
The ads incorporated current musical styles—from folk rock to bubblegum pop—to connect with 1970s listeners.
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By 1969, Coca-Cola’s iconic bottle's shape had become so familiar that Coca-Cola built their advertising around it.
Their new slogan, "It's the Real Thing," connected directly to the bottle's purpose—helping customers spot authentic Coca-Cola among the knockoffs.
The campaign showed the bottle in silhouette.
The 2015 finale of Mad Men wove “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” into its story.
In the show's last scene, Don Draper sits meditating at a retreat when inspiration strikes.
The scene cuts to the actual Coke commercial, suggesting his character created the famous ad.
Saturday Night Live parodied it in a sketch where the singers couldn't afford Coke and drank water instead.
The Simpsons recreated the hilltop scene with their characters holding Duff Beer.
In 2006, The 40-Year-Old Virgin used the song's melody but changed the lyrics to mock consumer culture.
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Today, those “It’s The Real Thing” original commercial reels sit in temperature-controlled vaults at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, alongside moon rocks and Abraham Lincoln's top hat.
The museum's curators specifically chose this campaign because it captured a pivotal moment: when mass advertising began shaping not just what Americans bought, but how they saw themselves.
Examining this campaign reveals specific details about 1971 America: the fashion choices, the racial dynamics, the corporate optimism, and the emerging youth culture.
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