'Mad Men' boss spills on finale ad

It turns out that Mad Men, the history-making TV drama about advertising that just ended, wrapped things up by tweaking ad history.

That's one takeaway from show boss Matthew Weiner's post-finale discussion at the New York Public Library on Wednesday night — his only scheduled interview after the four-time Emmy-winning drama ended its seventh and final season on AMC on Sunday.

Weiner revealed lots of things about the last episode (the interview lasted 90 minutes and he never stopped talking), which can be viewed at the library's website.

But the biggest buzz was about the final moments of the finale. Ad man Don Draper, who's trying to "find himself" at an Esalen-like spiritual retreat in California, is meditating in the sunshine when the scene abruptly shifts to a Coca-Cola ad.

Actually, the Coke ad, the so-called "Hilltop" ad featuring a multi-racial chorus of hippie-types cavorting on an Italian hillside while singing, "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" and other sugary lyrics.

Cue the online speculation among MM viewers (where do they get the time?) about whether this was supposed to mean that Draper is the guy responsible for this iconic commercial.

Over to you, Matt: That's indeed what it's supposed to mean, Weiner said in his interview with A.M. Homes at the library.

"In the abstract, I did think, why not end this show with the greatest commercial ever made?," he said. "In terms of what it means to people and everything, I am not ambiguity for ambiguity's sake. But it was nice to have your cake and eat it too, in terms of what is advertising, who is Don and what is that thing?"

Weiner said he never watched TV growing up so possibly he never saw this Coke ad in all its treacly glory when it ran in the early 1970s. Nevertheless, he doesn't understand the cynicism about the ad among those who view it as corny.

"I'm not saying advertising's not corny, but I'm saying that the people who find that ad corny, they're probably experiencing a lot of life that way, and they're missing out on something," he said.

"And the idea that someone in an enlightened state might have created something that's very pure — yeah, there's soda in there with a good feeling, but that ad to me is the best ad ever made, and it comes from a very good place," he added. "That ad in particular is so much of its time, so beautiful and, I don't think, as — I don't know what the word is — villainous as the snark of today."

But just to be clear: The Coke ad was actually created by Bill Backer, then-creative director on the Coca-Cola account for the McCann Erickson advertising agency, in 1971.

Not that Backer, McCann or Coca-Cola are complaining. Backer's phone hasn't stopped ringing since the MM finale, he told the Wall Street Journal.

The soda company issued a statement after the show praising MM for allowing everyone to experience "the magic of 'Hilltop' in the context of its creation and times."

And McCann was so tickled the agency tweeted a joke: