Thoroughbred Owner Backer in Mad Men Spotlight

by Mike Kane

Monday morning, several hours after “Mad Men” closed its 7-year run with the legendary jingle, “I Want to Buy the World a Coke,” the phone started ringing at Bill Backer's home in The Plains, VA. He's been fielding calls ever since. 

The first reporter who reached Backer–a longtime Thoroughbred owner and breeder–told him that his famous song in a remarkably successful 1971 Coca-Cola commercial had brought the acclaimed series on AMC to a conclusion. It was news to him. 

“I didn't know and Coca-Cola didn't either,” Backer, 88, said. “They had been called and said, 'we'd like to use your commercial sometime and we promise it will not denigrate the advertising or the product.' They trusted them and they were right. It didn't. They would have called me, but they didn't know.” 

Backer's “I Want to Buy the World a Coke,” song was the highest point of a brilliant advertising career in New York. By no means a one-hit wonder, Backer, often using his musical talent, was responsible for many many very successful campaigns: “Things Go Better with Coke” and “It's the Real Thing” for Coca-Cola; composed the jingle “Little girls have pretty curls, but I like Oreo” for Nabisco; conceived “It's Miller Time” and the jingle “If You've Got the Time, We've got the Beer,” and the concept for the long-running “Great Taste…Less Filling” commercials usually featuring feuding athletes that helped Miller Lite gain acceptance and become one of the most popular beers in America; and Lowenbrau's “Here's to Good Friends, Tonight is Kind of Special.” He developed the “Bring on the Campbell's, Soup is Good Food” campaign. 

In 1995, Backer was a unanimous selection to the Advertising Hall of Fame. He was elected as a member of The Jockey Club in Oct. 2004. 

Backer's reaction to learning that his song was used to suggest that the series' troubled star Don Draper had regained his mojo and had the idea for the Coca-Cola commercial: “Well, things go the way they go,” he said. 

Though Backer and his wife Ann started watching the series when it came on the air in 2007, he said he lost interest in the second season. Backer considered Mad Men more of a soap opera and less about advertising, but said he will make a point to watch the final episode. 

Backer grew up in Charleston, SC, spent two years in the Navy and graduated from Yale in 1950. In his first three years after college, he headed a small freelance music operation, worked as a production assistant at Columbia Pictures and rented office space. His first job as a trainee at McCann Erickson Advertising–the same company the fictional Don Draper eventually worked for–was in the mail room in 1953. He was the creative director when he resigned in 1979, several months before becoming a partner in his own firm. 

Backer and Spielvogel Advertising had the fastest growth rate of any agency in history and had attained billings of $480 million when it was sold to Saatchi and Saatchi in 1989. Backer stayed on as a consultant for a few years and wrote his book, “The Care and Feeding of Ideas” before moving into retirement on the farm. 

In his book and in countless interviews before and since, Backer explained that he wrote what became the final words to the song on a napkin while stranded overnight near the Shannon Airport in Ireland. Backer's Pan Am flight to London was diverted to Shannon because of fog at Heathrow and many passengers were unhappy and openly complaining about being inconvenienced. However, the next day Backer noticed some members of this international group of travelers chatting while drinking his client's beverage and wrote “I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.” The rest of the lyrics and music followed and were produced as a radio ad and then filmed as the “Hilltop” ad for television. The song was reworked, taking out the commercial links to Coke, and two versions of “I Want to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony) were in Billboard's top 10 at the same time. 

Shortly after beginning his advertising career, Backer and a partner spent about $500 to purchase a Thoroughbred weanling. He said the colt, Wink Proof (Proof Coil), provided him with his first career victory in 1956 at the Bowie Race Track in Maryland. In the early 1980s, the Backers bought property in Northern Virginia and developed Smitten Farm, where they raise horses and cattle and grow grains and hay. 

“We were smitten by the land and the whole idea of having this glorious place,” he said, explaining the name of the farm. 

These days, Backer has about 12 broodmares and a dozen runners in training with Hamilton Smith, Jonathan Sheppard and Bill Mott. Typically, he campaigns turf horses. His best runner was Blind Date (Not For Love), winner of the 2009 GIII Virginia Oaks and Maryland's 3-year-old filly champ that year. Blind Date's dam, Snit (Fit to Fight), won 10 races, including the GII Cotillion S. He bred and raced stakes winner Crab Grass (Known Fact) and her stakes-placd half-sister Fescue (Believe It). Blind Date's yearling son, Nice Try (Giant's Causeway), is growing up on Smitten Farm. 

Backer has been in love with Thoroughbreds for decades. 

“I just think all told they are the most versatile, wonderful breed,” he said. “People forget that they come in all different sizes and colors.' 

As an example, Backer pointed to a pair of Hall of Famers, massive Forego and the compact Northern Dancer. 

“They come in all shapes and sizes and temperaments,” he said. “And from that breed you can pick wonderful individuals to go fox hunting on or racing on or polo on. They're just a terrific bunch of horses.” 

Forty-four years after Backer's widely heralded Coca-Cola commercial received vast public attention, the producers and writers of “Mad Men” put it back in the spotlight. 

“It caught me by surprise,” he said, “but I'm not surprised totally.” 

As a result, one of America's great ad men has had an unexpected flurry of activity to deal with this week. 

“It's been busy,” Backer said. “News people keep calling and old friends. You have to acknowledge everybody.” 

And so he has. But has it been fun? 

“Yes,” he said, “but I'll be glad when it's over.”