Bill Cosby is an American former comedian and actor, he was a popular spokesperson for advertising from the 1960sbefore his first starring television roleuntil the early 2000s. He started with White Owl cigars, and later endorsed the Jell-O frosty ice pop treats Pudding Pop, gelatin, Del Monte, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola (including New Coke), American Red Cross, Texas Instruments, Service Merchandise, E. F. Hutton & Co., Kodak, and the 1990 United States census. , Cosby held the record for being the longest-serving celebrity spokesperson for a product, through his work with Jell-O. In 2011, he won the President's Award for Contributions to Advertising from the Advertising Hall of Fame.
Cosby was one of the first black people to appear in the United States as an advertising spokesperson. He was known for his appeal to white consumers in the second half of the 20th century, in an industry seen as slow to accept diversity. In spite of making contradictory soft drink pitches and endorsing a disgraced financial company, he continued to be considered effective and believable. In the 1980s, studies found Cosby the "most familiar" and "most persuasive" spokesperson, to the point where Cosby attributed his wealth to these contracts, as opposed to his television series.
Accusations of sexual assault, rape, and other crimes were made in 2014, leading to imprisonment. Some victims noted his public persona as discouraging them from speaking earlier, with one victim calling him "Mr America, Mr Jello." Before the public scrutiny, Cosby was still one of the most trusted celebrities in the United States.
Personality
Anthony Tortorici, director of public relations at Coca-Cola, told Black Enterprise magazine in 1981 that the "three most believable personalities are God, Walter Cronkite, and Bill Cosby." At the peak of his advertising career in the mid-1980s, Cosby had a Q Score of 70, meaning that 70 percent of those responding to a survey of 1,000 United States residents thought highly of him, thus deeming him the most familiar and persuasive endorser.Pendergrast, p. 362 In 2003, industry publication Advertising Age said that "during [Cosby's] 14-year reign over the ad industry's public approval index [he had only been surpassed by] the Pope. In 2012, the separate Celebrity DBI index listed Cosby as second most-trusted celebrity on a list of celebrities people pay attention to on television, behind Morgan Freeman.
Professionally, Coca-Cola advertising director John Bergin considered Cosby the company's "greatest weapon", stating that "magic happens when the camera starts." Bergin also noted, however, that he found Cosby to be "inconceivably arrogant", and mentioned "blow-ups" on the set.Pendergrast, p. 147
Cosby biographer Linda Etkin said that Cosby "comes across as a father figure, a teacher, and a friend" in his advertisements. William Turner, in 1982 the marketing manager for Texas Instruments' consumer products group, said that Cosby "represents comfort, and people trust him". In 2014, one educator asked for comment said he remembered Cosby as a "black male authority figure, one of those people who folks that don't live on the edges of the country think of as a good black guy; they trust that guy." In 1988, a representative for Kodak said Cosby had become "synonymous with quality products and quality services". Ebony agreed, saying Cosby has the advantage of being able to be selective. Cosby said his belief in their product is an attribute, stating, "if I presented a Bill Cosby who didn't care, their sales would stop right there on the screen. Obviously, I could never do that. Once I believe in the product I aim to sell it, and that's what I think I do better than anybody".
An article in Black Enterprise said part of Cosby's mystique is "that he can endorse a number of products and still retain credibility in each individual sell". Shortly after being signed by Coca-Cola, Cosby appeared at a bottlers' convention. He refused to drink the bottle of Coke he carried on stage, saying, "I'm waiting for all the Jell-O pudding I ate to settle". Cosby said that in childhood, he experienced "periods of addiction" to Coca-Cola, consuming fifteen bottles by 2 pm.
Career in advertising
1960s
The American advertising industry was initially reluctant to use black spokespeople for fear of angering white customers. The Nat King Cole Show (1956-1957), the first nationally syndicated U.S. television series to be hosted by an African American, never found a national sponsor; after its cancellation Cole said, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark".; ; the books say Revlon was the specific instigator of the remark.
Cosby's first advertisement was for White Owl cigars. His agent approached them in 1965, before the debut of I Spy, but after several appearances on the late-night talk program The Tonight Show, a signifier of success in American comedy. He told agent Norman Brokaw of William Morris Agency that he liked their tagline, "We're going to get you." Cosby later said there were no commercials "with a black person holding something, buying a product, so the absence of pictures, in retrospect, said a lot". Despite the stigma among advertisers around using a black spokesperson, sales of the product rose. According to an entry in Ad Age Encyclopedia, the public acceptance of Cosby and Robert Culp appearing as equals on I Spy made it possible for advertisers to show black people and white people together in their commercials.
The Bill Cosby Radio Program, which debuted in 1968, was sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company. The series was syndicated to over 200 radio stations by McCann Erickson, Coca-Cola's advertising agency.
1970s
In 1974, Cosby began promoting Jell-O pudding for General Foods. Cosby said comedian Jack Benny, whose program the brand sponsored, was the only previous spokesman for Jell-O, but Kate Smith, Lucille Ball, and Andy Griffith have also pitched the brand. In previous campaigns since the brand's launch in 1902, it was targeted towards parents rather than to children, a practice from which the company departed in 2001. Cosby's early commercials were created at the Young & Rubicam advertising agency by Curvin O'Reilly. The commercials did not test well in Day After Recall versus other options, making airing them questionable since it came with a $100,000 per year contract commitment. However once the commercials were on-air, there was an immediate and surprising response in sales.
Cosby's Jell-O Pudding commercials were not permitted to be used in child directed television because celebrity endorsements were prohibited in advertising to children. Sales immediately responded to the Cosby advertising with growth after what had been a long decline.
Del Monte signed Cosby to narrate a series of commercials, in 1974, aired in 76 markets. A spokesperson for the company commented that Cosby "can communicate with kids as well as adults, one of those rare performers who can (do that) on both levels."
Cosby began appearing in ads for Ford Motor Company. To choose him, the company had 600 members of the public look at photos of possible spokespeople. They gauged recognition, "sincerity ascribed to the star," and feelings about the presenters. Ford worried about the reaction to Cosby by white customers in southern states, but he was approved of by residents of the two cities polled. Once the commercials were filmed or designed, they were tested on audiences, before airing on television and in print. At least two of the 1977 commercials were filmed at the Lima Engine Plant. One ad in the campaign saw Cosby's narration note that "the camshaft makes the valves open and close... exactly when they're supposed to." Another claimed that the engines were "tough," or "it don't get to go into a Ford car." The Federal Trade Commission decided these ads, and others, were "patently untrue," citing nearly 2 million defective cars made over five years, due to a premature wear in the engines and improper lubrication of the camshaft.
In 1979, General Foods introduced Pudding Pops, the company's first frozen dessert product. With Cosby as spokesperson, it sold US$100 million its first year. After introducing Gelatin Pops and frozen Fruit Bars, the company's frozen desserts sales reached $300 million. Cosby was engaged to promote the flagging Jell-O gelatin product line in the mid-1980s, when General Foods introduced a holdable Jell-O product called "Jigglers". Sales increased seven percent during the first year of the promotion.
Cosby appeared in commercials for Coca-Cola's 1979 campaign, "Have a Coke and a Smile," and made a guest appearance at the Great Get-Together, a major bottlers' convention held that year.Pendergrast, p. 324 This campaign continued into 1981.
His work in this decade was well received. Advertising Age named Cosby the top advertising personality of 1978. In 1999, Advertising Age magazine named Cosby's 1975 Jell-O commercials, which they called "Bill Cosby with kids", the 92nd best advertising campaign of all time.
In 1979, Cosby began appearing in a series of print ads for the American Red Cross, promoting blood donation. They ran until at least 1986. In 1980, Cosby also appeared in an ad for CPR training.
1980s
Black Enterprise magazine found that Cosby was one of only a very few African Americans who could command among the highest fees paid for advertising spokespeople. The 1981 feature also highlighted how rare it was for African Americans to be hired for a complete campaign, as opposed to a single advertisement, despite an overall increase in opportunities. Cosby's agents told the magazine he had earned at least $3 million in current advertising contractsabout one-fifth of his incomethe rest of which he earned from live performances.
Cosby returned as Coca-Cola's spokesperson in its 1982 "Coke Is It" campaign, a series of commercials mocking the Pepsi Challenge. One advertisement in this series showed a Pepsi vending machine to mock the brand, which author Mark Pendergrast called "unthinkable". Another said Pepsi Challenge commercials were misleading because they never showed anyone choosing Coke. John Bergin, who directed the series of commercials, personally disliked Cosby but said his presence in Coca-Cola advertising ended the first Pepsi Challenge campaign in 1983.Pendergrast, p. 346
In mid-1982, Cosby was hired by Texas Instruments to appear in television advertisements for the company's TI-99/4A home computer. He was to be paid $1 million a year for the campaign. Pages 225 and 230. The company touted Cosby's education and rapport with adults and children. The campaign was aimed at parents, rather than children, as was the campaign for the Commodore 64. Cosby was the face of a mystery rebate program, offering reimbursements of between $3 and $1,000; one Boston Globe writer dubbed it "the Bill Cosby rebate model." J. Fred Bucy, who was head of Texas Instruments' home computer operation in 1983, scrapped Cosby's advertisements to focus on the product's educational value. Radio Shack vice-president of marketing David Beckerman said, "A celebrity draws attention to the product. Even if we had President Reagan on our ads, we wouldn't sell any more computers. A product sells itself. A celebrity causes indirect sales." Cosby, along with entrepreneur James Bruce Llewellyn, bought stock in a Philadelphia Coca-Cola bottler in 1983 as part of the company's push to increase African American participation in the company. This was, in part, a response to pressure by Jesse Jackson's PUSH campaign.