Bill Backer, Inspiration for 'Mad Men,' Dies in Warrenton

WARRENTON, VA — Bill Backer, the man who inspired the AMC hit series "Mad Men" and taught "the world to sing" in a famous 1971 Coca-Cola commercial, has died in Warrenton. He was 89.

Backer's iconic Coke commercial appeared in the series finale of Mad Men as an homage to the man who inspired the period drama about the wild world of advertising in the 1960s.

Like Don Draper's fictional ad agency in Mad Men, Backer had a number of high-profile clients besides Coca-Cola like Miller Lite, Campbell's Soup and Oreo, according to a New York Times report.

He also spearheaded advertising campaigns for Hyundai, Parliament cigarettes, Philip Morris and Xerox.

Backer started writing musical comedies in high school before serving in the Navy and graduating from Yale in 1950. His dream was to be a songwriter, but his parents pushed him into a more "legitimate" business.

He first started working in the mailroom of an ad agency in 1953, climbing up the ladder to creative director in 1972 and then vice chairman in 1978. By the mid-1980s, his firm, Backer & Spielvogel, was pulling in more than $400 million per year, according to the report.

Backer and his team came up with famous slogans like defining Coke as "the real thing." He was also the man who created "Miller Time."

Backer's most famous creation may have been his 1971 commercial for Coca-Cola, which resulted in a hit record, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony)." The ad featured young people singing on a hilltop about wanting to "buy the world a Coke and keep it company."

Backer said he was inspired to create the commercial when his flight was diverted to an airport in Ireland, and he noticed passengers who had been previously angry conversing happily in a coffee shop, according to the report.

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