re: Mad Men Series Finale - "Person to Person"

I keep thinking about why was this Coca-Cola ad so great, to be so historic--why is this the commercial that makes Draper go down as the advertising GOAT? It all boils down to the commercial's connection to the 60's idealisms that were fading in the early 70's.

The Hilltop commercial was created in 1971, the same year Fear and Loathing was released in Rolling Stone by Hunter S. Thompson. As Thompson writes in this portion of the monologue:

"Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of...

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." (Full Monologue Here)

By this point, the American culture that fought so hard to create their own path, own ideals during the 60's movements were looking for something to cling on to--a token to remind them that their progress had not soured. The Hilltop ad released at a time that the American culture needed it most.

Que the greatest advertisement of them all, Hilltop. And who's standing at the top of that hill?--Don MF Draper