Overall, throughout his career, Bill Backer was a man that had his mind set on being successful,
and knew the ways to do it. He knew how to treat people in order to keep them as customers, he
knew it was important to create likeable ads, and he knew how to use his mind in innovative
ways that opened many new doors. His thoughts and ideas are still recognized today, shown by
an article in 2007 saying: “Campaign magazine called it "one of the best-loved and most
influential ads in TV history". Bill’s spirit and principles live on in the advertising world, and it
can be counted on that other creative minds will open new doors from his ideas.
Bill Backer was, and remains to this day, one of the greatest minds in the advertising industry.
He was born in 1926, in Charleston, South Carolina. He has created some of history’s most
successful ad campaigns such as Campbell’s Soup’s “Bring on the Campbell’s Soup is Good
Food;” Coca-Cola’s 1971 “Hilltop” anthem, “I’d like to Buy the World a Coke” which later was
turned into a song and eventually sold a total of 12 million copies. He also did Coke’s “It’s a
Real Thing” jingle and Miller Lite’s Taste’s great/less filling” celebrity “Feud” series that ran for
years and put Lite on top of the beer lists. He worked with McCann-Erickson’s company for 25
years as their vice chairman-creative director up until 1979 when Backer left McCann and went
into business with Interpublic vice chairman Carl Spielvogel, becoming a co-founder of the
Backer & Spielvogel agency. The agency was later bought in 1985 for $100 million by Saatchi
& Saatchi.
One of Bill’s most profound creative developments was a commercial that originally aired in
1971 for Coca Cola promoting world harmony and love, and, of course, Coca Cola. The
commercial started from Bill sitting in an airport in Ireland on a long layover, observing a great
deal of anger in the other people waiting for the flight. The next morning, he saw some of the
same passengers sitting and laughing together, sharing Coke’s. This is where the line, “I’d like to
buy the world a Coke” came from. A song was developed, and it failed on the radio; but Bill
knew he had a good idea, and talked his company into creating the famous hilltop commercial
out of the song. The commercial and the jingle were so successful that people started calling
radio stations requesting to hear it, and another two verses were eventually added and brand
names were removed to make an actual song form the jingle.
This is all great, but how does it pertain to the creativity of Bill? Well Bill was the initial person
to have the idea for the song, observing actual people drinking Coca Cola and using his mind to
be able to relate it to a vast amount of others. Bill is quoted on his thoughts from observing the
people drinking coke in saying, “to see Coke not as it was originally designed to be—a liquid
refresher—but as a tiny bit of commonality between all peoples, a universally liked formula that
would help to keep them company for a few minutes.” His ability to see the drink in that light
shows a creative mind at work. Then when the radio ads failed, he was brave enough to fight for
his idea using his imagination, thinking of another way to get his message across to people.
Turning the jingle into a full blown minute long commercial that had such a lasting impact on so
many people truly shows a creative spirit. Also on a side note, his belief in his idea was
represented by his bravery to create a commercial that cost $250,000 based off of a failing radio
jingle, which was an unheard of amount of money at the time.