“I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke.”
“I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” was sent to radio stations all throughout the country on February 12th, 1971. It totally flopped. The Coca-Cola bottlers specifically hate the ad, and most of them refused to buy airtime for it. The first few times the ad was played on the radio, audiences paid absolutely no attention; the public barely noticed it.
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Backer really believed in the campaign. He managed to persuade McCann to convince the Coca-Cola executives that the ad was still had potential; it just needed a visual dimension. The company eventually came around and approved over $250,000 on filming. At the time, this was the largest amount of money ever spent on a television commercial.