• by Thom Forbes , Featured Columnist, September 11, 2015

Can you think of any commercial content that has enjoyed as long an infectious run — in multiple iterations  — as Coca-Coca’s 1971 “Hilltop”? The original spot was most recently revived in the final scene of the final episode of “Mad Men.” With a slight smile of satori, Don Draper’s “ommm” chant turns into opening strains of “I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke,” follow by the spot in its entirely.

Coca-Cola jumped on the free exposure, of course. Nearly 5,000 “likes” were registered on its mention on Facebook. The company posted to its Journeys website, where a 2012 story lovingly chronicles the origins of the spot. Tweets abounded. Coverage in traditional media followed.

But when you’re living by the hashtag, you’re just as easily bashed by the hashtag, as Amazon experienced during its midsummer Prime Day event. Along those lines, Word Spy has given us “diss tweet,” a neologism that’s a reminder of the double-edged nature of living in social media. 

In fact, a “diss video” that that turns the “Hilltop” spot on its iconic head has been circulating for a couple of months  The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s “Change the Tune”  features real patients and doctors singing lyrics such as “I'd like to buy the world a drink/That doesn't cause disease.”

This is the CPSI’s “translation of Coke-speak,” says Jim O’Hara, a former federal public health official and journalist who is the organization’s director of health promotion policy. “We tried to make certain that the industry’s marketing is unmasked.”

The parody has gotten nearly 350,000 hits since it was uploaded to YouTube by CSPI on June 23. A version in Spanish has garnered 145,000 more, and there are subtitled translations in French, Hindi, Mandarin and Portuguese.

O’Hara points out that “Change the Tune” is “very much in the tradition of earlier efforts such as “The Real Bears,” a 2012 CPSI video orchestrated by Alex Bogusky that has garnered more than 2.5 million views on YouTube, as well as a sardonic translation of Coca-Cola’s “Coming Together” ad in 2013.

CSPI has always been savvy and persistent about getting its message out in the media. Co-founder and executive director Michael Jacobson is a persuasive advocate not averse to personally arguing the organization's case. But the equation for generating buzz now relies a lot more on directly recruiting the masses than on wooing a reporter here and convincing an editor there.

“We try to take advantage of the full range of platforms, “O’Hara says. “Social media is the way to communicate these days.”

The message on CSPI’s website for “The Real Bears” makes that clear: “Big soda companies have billions of dollars to tell their story, but we have each other. Oh — and we have the truth. Help The Real Bears spread the truth about soda by sharing the film…. Have at it. You are the messenger.”

A couple of weeks ago, CSPI reported that beyond the billions the soda industry spends on traditional advertising and marketing, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the American Beverage Association “have spent at least $106 million to defeat public health initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels since 2009,” according to CSPI's analysis.

Beyond having the bucks to peddle its influence, Coke and its brethren have bought their way into our hearts and minds with some of the most hummable advertising ever created. And “Grow apple trees/And honey bees” is a lot more palatable than “Liquid calories/Gave her diabetes.”

But CSPI may be winning the argument — both politically and intellectually. The Food and Drug Administration this summer proposed that Nutrition Facts labels not only be required to break out the amount of added sugar content in food products — but also that labels show a Daily Value percentage for added sugars.

Consumers’ perceptions have changed, too. “Clearly one the things you’re seeing, for a decade now, is that sugar drink consumption is declining. We think that ‘Change the Tune,’ like ‘The Real Bears,’ is a nudge that keeps that train going downhill as people become aware of the health impact,” says O’Hara.

There’s more coming, O’Hara promises. “Stay tuned.”

How can we not nowadays? Whatever CSPI does is sure to wind up on some friend’s social media feed.