Editing Bill Cosby (section)

=== Advertising ===
[[File:1976 Ford Advertisement with Bill Cosby Hot Rod November 1976 (28580301533) (cropped).jpg|thumb|230x230px|Cosby in a 1976 Ford advertisement]]
Cosby was a popular spokesperson for advertising from the 1960s{{spaced ndash}}before his first starring television role{{spaced ndash}}until the early 2000s. He started with [[White Owl]] cigars, and later endorsed [[Jell-O]] pudding and gelatin, [[Del Monte Foods|Del Monte]], [[Ford Motor Company]], [[Coca-Cola]] (including [[New Coke]]), [[American Red Cross]], [[Texas Instruments]], [[E. F. Hutton & Co.]], [[Kodak]], and the [[1990 United States census]]. {{As of|2002}}, 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.<ref name="adage-2009">{{cite magazine |last=Miley |first=Marissa |title=Black Agency Employees Paid 20% Less Than Whites |url=http://adage.com/article/news/study-ad-agencies-exhibit-pervasive-racial-discrimination/133638/ |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822115640/http://adage.com/article/news/study-ad-agencies-exhibit-pervasive-racial-discrimination/133638/ |archive-date=August 22, 2016 |quote=Referencing Nat King Cole's comment that Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark, Mr. Mehri said, 'They're going to be afraid of the sunshine we're going to bring to the industry.' |journal=[[Advertising Age]] |date=January 8, 2009 |access-date=January 25, 2013 |oclc=39911225}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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 primarily, over his television series.

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."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whitaker |first1=Mark |title=Cosby: His Life and Times |date=September 16, 2014 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1451697995 |page=269}}</ref> 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.<ref name="AAFPresidentsAward2">{{cite news |last=Crain |first=Rance |date=28 March 2011 |title=Bill Cosby Looks Back on His Life in Commercials |url=http://adage.com/article/news/bill-cosby-back-life-commercials/149599/ |access-date=12 August 2011 |newspaper=Ad Age |location=New York NY}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=15 September 2003 |title=Archetype/Stereotype |url=http://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/archetype-stereotype/98323/ |access-date=30 January 2013 |newspaper=Ad Age Encyclopedia |location=New York NY}}</ref>

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}}In 1974, Cosby began promoting Jell-O pudding for [[General Foods]].<ref name="companion3">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Andrew F. |title=The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-988576-3 |location=New York NY}}</ref> Cosby said comedian [[Jack Benny]], whose program the brand sponsored, was the only previous spokesman for Jell-O,<ref name="dougshow2">{{cite web |title=Cosby Part 5 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kUmDYdiYj4 |access-date=3 December 2011 |work=Doug Miles and Don Henderson's radio show |publisher=WSLR Radio Sarasota}}</ref> but [[Kate Smith]], [[Lucille Ball]], and [[Andy Griffith]] have also pitched the brand.<ref name="wiley3">{{cite book |last=Hughes |first=Holly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gUGOKH5cHnwC&q=jello+bill+cosby&pg=PA58 |title=Frommer's 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers |date=8 April 2009 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-48064-9 |page=58}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Stephanie |date=19 November 2001 |title=Jell-O sales jiggle downward; X-treme products readied |url=http://adage.com/article/news/jell-o-sales-jiggle-downward-x-treme-products-readied/33243/ |access-date=30 January 2013 |newspaper=Advertising Age |location=New York NY}}</ref> Cosby's early commercials were created at the [[VMLY&R|Young & Rubicam]] advertising agency by Curvin O'Reilly. 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. In 1979, General Foods introduced [[Pudding Pop]]s, 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=McMath |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6PfR0mu3ZSgC&q=jello+bill+cosby&pg=PT28 |title=What Were They Thinking?: Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Products That Flopped |date=27 April 2011 |publisher=Random House Digital, Inc. |isbn=978-0-307-79364-5 |page=256}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite news |last=Spackman |first=Christy |date=17 August 2012 |title=Mormonism's Jell-O Mold |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2012/08/jell_o_and_mormonism_the_stereotype_s_surprising_origins_.html |access-date=26 January 2013 |newspaper=Slate.com |location=Washington DC}}</ref> Sales increased seven percent during the first year of the promotion.<ref name="companion3"/>

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.<ref name="GodCountryCoke-3462">Pendergrast, p. 346</ref><ref name="GodCountryCoke-324">Pendergrast, p. 324</ref> This campaign continued into 1981. Cosby returned as Coca-Cola's spokesperson in its 1982 "Coke Is It" campaign,<ref name="GodCountryCoke-3462">Pendergrast, p. 346</ref> a series of commercials mocking the [[Pepsi Challenge]].<ref name="GodCountryCoke-3462" /> Cosby continued to be a Jell-O spokesman through the 1990s. He was present for the lighting of the brand's first billboard in New York's [[Times Square]] in 1998.<ref>{{cite news |date=1 June 1998 |title=Jell-O in Big Apple |url=http://adage.com/article/news/jell-o-big-apple/65650/ |access-date=30 January 2013 |newspaper=Advertising Age |location=New York NY}}</ref> In 1999, Cosby's 25th year as spokesman for Jell-O, was also the final year he appeared in its advertising. The company distributed 120,000 copies of his picture book series, ''[[Little Bill (book series)|Little Bill]]'', into American public libraries.<ref>{{cite news |date=30 April 1999 |title=Cosby, Jello mark 25th anniversary |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sWowAAAAIBAJ&pg=4814,9410687&dq=little+bill+jello&hl=en |access-date=3 December 2011 |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |location=Rome, Georgia}}</ref>  Despite the transitions of advertising agencies{{refn|[[Young & Rubicam Advertising]] had the Jell-O account since 1926, but lost it to [[Draftfcb|FCB]] in 2000.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/08/business/media-business-advertising-giants-engage-battle-for-billings-daimlerchrysler.html?pagewanted=2|last=Elliott|first=Stuart|title=Giants Engage in Battle for Billings as DaimlerChrysler Conducts Assignment Review|newspaper=New York Times|date=8 September 2000|access-date=26 May 2015}}</ref>|group=note}} and despite the 1989 merger of General Foods into [[Kraft]], the then-newly merged company Kraft General Foods let Cosby remain with Jell-O as their spokesperson.<ref>{{cite news |date=15 September 2003 |title=Kraft Foods |url=http://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/kraft-foods/98739/ |access-date=30 January 2013 |newspaper=Advertising Age |location=New York NY}}</ref>  He appeared at the [[Utah State Senate]] in 2001 to designate Jell-O [[List of Utah state symbols|the official state snack]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Swinyard |first=Kersten |date=1 February 2001 |title=Jell-O jiggles its way through Senate vote |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/822795/Jell-O-jiggles-its-way-through-Senate-vote.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924131435/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/822795/Jell-O-jiggles-its-way-through-Senate-vote.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |access-date=26 January 2013 |newspaper=Deseret News |location=Deseret UT}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Griggs |first=Brandon |title=Utah Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff |date=1 October 2007 |publisher=Globe Pequot |isbn=978-0-7627-4386-5 |page=68 |chapter=Hello, Jell-o! |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bXi0RNY7MmIC&q=jello+bill+cosby&pg=PA68}}</ref> and made a promotional visit to the [[Jell-O Gallery]] in 2004.<ref name="wiley3"/> In 2010, Cosby returned to Jell-O as executive producer for the company's "Hello Jell-O" campaign. In return, the brand sponsored his weekly web show ''[[OBKB]]'', a children's interview series similar to ''[[Kids Say the Darndest Things]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fredrix |first=Emily |date=16 May 2010 |title=Bill Cosby & Jell-O: Together Again |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/bill-cosby-jell-o-togethe_n_578592.html |access-date=3 December 2011 |work=The Huffington Post |publisher=TheHuffingtonPost.com}}</ref> As of 2002, Cosby's time with Jell-O was considered the longest-standing celebrity endorsement in American advertising history.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cross |first=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ecgiAQAAIAAJ&q=jello+bill+cosby |title=A century of American icons: 100 products and slogans from the 20th century consumer culture |date=30 September 2002 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-31481-0}}</ref>

Cosby has not appeared in advertising roles since the widespread publicization of his sexual assault allegations in 2014.