NAMES IN THE NEWS : ‘Real Thing’ Folks Do It Again

Stephanie Smith Roos got a shot at fame 19 years ago singing “It’s the real thing” in a Coca-Cola commercial, and now she gets to do it all over again.

Roos, a Gary native, was living with her parents in Rome when she appeared in the classic 1971 commercial in which 40 young people on a hillside sang “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” Roos was the freckled, round-faced woman with straight blond hair whose line closed the spot.

Her hair is wavier now, her face is thinner and the freckles are gone, but she’ll reprise the role Jan. 28 in a new Coke commercial to appear during the Super Bowl. The new spot also features two of her four children--Matthew, 12, and Elicia, 10--with her on that same hilltop in Sacrofano, Italy.

“The call from Coke in August came out of the blue,” said Roos, 39.

Coke, in rounding up the original cast, had nothing more to go on than photos from the first commercial and names discovered in a closet at an advertising agency.