6 - Sound

Summary

America believes in Coke. In 1979, Martin Esslin noted the dynamic function of music in the television commercial as he focused on one spectacular, effervescent example:

It is significant [in some cases] that the more abstract the imagery of the TV commercial becomes the more extensively it relies on music: around the giant soft drink bottle revolves a chorus of dancing singers; the mountain range of a trademark is surrounded by a choir of devoted singing worshippers. The higher the degree of abstraction and pure symbolism, the nearer the spectacle approaches ritual forms. This intriguing observation and description refers to an especially significant short film narrative.

In 1971, a new Coca-Cola commercial begins to air on the networks: a young lady starts singing a cappella, “I’d like to buy the world a home, and furnish it with love,” as the camera encircles her in closeup. The camera pulls back to reveal another young lady and a young man, who join the first in song (Fig. 6.1). The young man holds an open bottle of Coca-Cola. Dissolves lead to Shots 2 and 3, the camera moving from screen right to left across a line of many young adults from around the world. All sing, and many enthusiastically hold opened Coke bottles. A dissolve to Shot 4 reveals that there is a second and third line of singers behind the first. In Shot 6, we see the first camera move from right to left, which concentrates on hands and the bottles they hold; in Shot 7, a caroling face is seen in closeup. It is then superimposed over an aerial shot of the engaged, singing crowd. The face disappears, but the aerial image remains. Scrolling text explains, “On a hilltop in Italy/We assembled young people/From all over the world … /To bring you this message/From Coca-Cola Bottlers/ All over the world.” There is an engaging, nearly communal (religious?), and mysteriously vital experience watching and, especially, listening to this song of buoyant youth. Coke is celebrated in a song of utopian terms in this incredible, visionary landscape that usually exists only as an escape plan for the decommissioned audience.

Thus, director Roberto Malenotti's sixty-second musical Hilltop (1971, aka I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing) concludes, produced by McCann–Erickson for Coca-Cola, and using a melody written by Cook and Greenaway.