“I’d like to build the world a home,
And furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees,
And snow white turtle doves.”
Those memorable words are the opening lyrics to one of the most successful songs in history, written by British songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. Its fame spread worldwide in the 1970s with numerous foreign language translations.
And it all started as a Coca-Cola jingle!
“I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
It’s the real thing.
What the world wants today.”
From materialism to altruism—that’s the American way! Start by selling something. Then, create a need.
Wait a minute. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Find a need – fill it – then sell it?
But in this case why waste a catchy jingle? As the coke orders piled up, the word, ‘coke’ was removed and replaced with peaceful aspirations for a better world.
This newly revised song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing,” was performed by The New Seekers and also The Hillside Singers, two popular folk groups at the time. They kept people around the globe singing this jingly peace song for a long time. It was awesome advertising for coke by boosting its name recognition and then oddly connecting it to a better world. Brilliant, because is coke of any kind really making this world a better place? Or could a sip of sugar make you think so?
Decades later The New Seekers became old and perfect harmony became a dissonant rap song. Coincidentally, obesity levels are rising along with the booming sales of the relatively new diet coke. The classic riddle of ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ transformed into ‘which came first, obesity or diet coke?’
Actually, science has already answered the second question quite a while ago. Direct links have been found, particularly in older adults, for long term increases in waist circumference with the consumption of diet drinks.
So here’s a bit of sage advice to our wonderful new 2025 graduates: look past the catchy jingles of your forefathers and head straight to creating a better world for us.
Start by bringing your positive influence to one person, then another, eventually the world will catch up. Your forefathers made too many big mistakes. It’s good to think globally, but don’t leave out acting locally. We need you. Learn from those old seekers and do better this time. You can do it.
Time moves on yet that old haunting refrain remains a catchy one.
I’d like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony,
that’s the song I hear,
What the world needs today…”
But another seeker from old times, Dr Seuss, I think had an even better take on it:
“To the world you might be just one person,
but to one person you might just be the world.”
