The Coke Commercial
Vocabulary
| hilltop | perfect | buy/bought/bought |
| bee | thing (2) | message (2) |
| honey | dove (2) | grow/grew/grown (2) |
| real | harmony | teach/taught/taught |
| turtle | nationality | sing/sang/sung |
| hill | furnish | international |
| top | turtle dove | all over the world |
| world | assemble | bring/brought/brought |
| bottle | ethnicity | company (2) |
| race | promote | commercial |
| peace | market (3) | advertisement |
Video (1971)
Transcript
I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love.
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves.
I’d like to teach the world to sing — sing with me — in perfect harmony.
Perfect harmony.
I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
That’s the real thing.
I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.
I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
It’s the real thing.
Coke is what the world wants today.
Coca-Cola is the real thing.
Coke is what the world wants today.
Coca-Cola is the real thing.
On a hilltop in Italy, we assembled young people from all over the world to bring you this message. From Coca-Cola Bottlers. All over the world, it’s the real thing. Coke.
Video (2015)
Questions
Swedish, Norwegian, Danish. This was a regular music video. A four-member pop band was performing in the video. The clip featured a four-member band. True or false?
English, Scottish, Irish. Were the singers all (White) Australian?
Nigerian, Congolese, Kenyan. Everyone sang on a stage of a theater. Is this right or wrong?
Spanish, Italian, Greek. Were the performers dancing? What were they doing?
Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian. All the members of the groups were wearing “regular, modern” clothes. Is this correct or incorrect?
Czech, Hungarian, Polish. What was the tone of the song? Was the song sad, energetic, happy, cheerful, upbeat, pessimistic, optimistic, hopeful, angry, furious, political, romantic, party-hearty, uplifting, ecstatic?
Turkish, Iranian, Arabic. Does the video have a theme? Is there a message in the video?
Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan. I have heard this song before. Yes or no? Was this TV commercial made in 2020?
Argentinian, Chilean, Uruguayan. Can you think of other iconic or famous TV commercials? What’s your favorite ad?
Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese. Might this song or TV ad be controversial?
Indonesian, Filipino, Malaysian. Is globalization good, bad, both, neither, in-between or it depends?
Chinese, Japanese, Korean. Is Coca-Cola good, bad, both, neither, in the middle or it depends?
Mexican, Cuban, Salvadoran. What might happen in the future?
Colombian, Venezuelan, Brazilian. What could or should people do?
