Anti-soda campaign uses iconic TV ad

Memo to marketers and brand managers: When you come up with your super-memorable jingle to push your product, make sure it can’t come back to haunt you 40 years later.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest released the ad this week, mocking the old Coca Cola ad of the 1970s.

“For the past 45 years, Coca-Cola and other makers of sugar drinks have used the most sophisticated and manipulative advertising techniques to convince children and adults alike that a disease-promoting drink will make them feel warm and fuzzy inside,” CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson said in a press release announcing a “Change the Tune” campaign to reduce soda-related disease. “It’s a multi-billion-dollar brainwashing campaign designed to distract us away from our diabetes with happy thoughts. We thought it was time to change the tune.”

The original Coca Cola ad, which premiered in 1971, was introduced to a new generation recently when it was featured in the finale of Mad Men.