After the episode aired, many were quick to link Mr. Backer — and the ad that he helped create for the McCann Erickson agency, where the fictional Mr. Draper also worked — to the show’s brooding, famously flawed protagonist. But Mr. Backer, who will turn 89 in June, insists otherwise.

“I’ve forgotten most of my vices,” Mr. Backer said. “I’m not Don Draper.”

The inclusion of the so-called Hilltop commercial — which features a multicultural cast singing on a hillside — had some wondering if “Mad Men” had simply been one long advertisement.

For its part, Coca-Cola said it had virtually nothing to do with the ad’s placement. Conversations about including the commercial began about a year ago, when Matthew Weiner, the creator of “Mad Men,” approached Coca-Cola. The company eventually provided Mr. Weiner with a high-definition copy of the ad. The original film is at the Library of Congress in Washington.

“No money changed hands,” Wendy Clark, a top marketing executive at Coca-Cola North America, said in an interview Monday.