First get "Hilltop" – arguably the most famous television advertisement ever made – into your head. It shouldn't be that difficult: the 1971 ad for Coca-Cola regained cultural currency this year when it was used in the end scene for cult TV series Mad Men.
Then think of its catchy “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” lyrics. Now try the tune with the following (definitely less catchy) lyrics: “I’d like to buy the world a treat that doesn’t cause disease, liquid calories gave her diabetes, which really ain’t so sweet, that’s obesity, type two dia-be-tes.”
It’s not quite a remake of the Hilltop ad – the video devised by US nonprofit health advocacy organisation the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) – not least because no one is dreamily on a sunny mountaintop.
Instead the participants are real people, patients suffering from obesity, diabetes and tooth decay in hospital rooms and clinics singing along with their doctors.
It’s cheap, determinedly cheerless and effective, a good example of a not-for-profit dipping its toes in guerilla marketing to get its message across.
What they're up against is in the end frame – $1 billion dollars a year is spent every year marketing sugary drinks. It's a classic David and Goliath struggle but CSPI is providing Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hindi and Mandarin translations of the lyrics used in the new film as a resource for health advocates around the world. It's on YouTtube.
