I was going to post in this thread but I wanted to produce a cite first. Thing is, I can’t find a cite, so I’m starting a new thread rather than hijack the other.
Does anyone else remember Bill Cosby having to retract false statements he made in a TV commercial for Coca-Cola? I’m sure it was Bill Cosby. I’m almost positive it was Coca-Cola and not one of his other endorsements. I’m certain this was not about New Coke, because this incident would have been in 1980, '81 or '82, and New Coke happened in 1985.
So I’m just idly wondering what those statements were. My search turned up a few references to Cosby’s New Coke ads, which somewhat contradicted his earlier spots – New Coke was allegedly awesome because it was sweet, whereas Old Coke was supposed to be better than Pepsi because Pepsi was too sweet. But what I’m thinking of seemed to have been a blatant lie, not just waffling on opinion. Like saying “Coke doesn’t have saccharine” when it did. I can just barely envision the ad, with Cosby stating unequivocally, “I said such-and-such and it wasn’t true; here’s the truth.”
You see? I don’t doubt that my memory is grounded, but I didn’t want to put these vague mutterings in the other thread. So does this ring a bell for anyone else?
Not related to Bill Cosby, but late last year Coke ran some advertising here in Australia using a famous spokesperson, Kerry Armstrong, on the theme of Motherhood & Myth-Busting, which they were later forced to retractin published ads. So entirely possible this could have been the case years ago.
A search of ProQuest’s Historical Newspaper Databases didn’t reveal anything like the OP’s scenario. While there were quite a few articles related to Cosby and Coca-Cola, none dealt with an issue of false statements or retractions.
I found a short Wall Street Journal (September 7, 1983) noting that Cosby had bought a stake in the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of New York.
There were a few articles from 1984 discussing how the Seven-Up Co. and the Coca-Cola Co. were in dispute over whether 7-Up or Diet Coke was the third best selling soft drink in America. (e.g., Washington Post, March 8, 1984; New York Times, March 8, 1984; Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1984)
There were also a couple of articles about the New Coke, which made clear that Cosby was still involved in advertising Coca-Cola when the new formula was introduced in 1985. One article (Los Angeles Times, June 27, 1985) had this quote:
Another piece (Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1985)notes that, with old Coke losing market share to Pepsi:
That’s not all the articles, but it’s all the stories that seemed even vaguely relevant.
I believe what happened is Bill Cosby got mad when Coke went back to its original formula and stated they made him look like a liar. He quit advertising for and cut ties with the Coca cola company.
I don’t recall any factual statements that Cosby had to retract. What I do recall is that Cosby did numerous ads for the “new” Coke in which he told everyone how much better the new Coke tasted. A lot of consumers disagreed, and demanded the return of the “old” Coke. And many of those people resented Cosby for telling them how good the new flavor was.
Apparently Cosby had called Pepsi “Too sweet” in earlier Coke ads. Then he pushed the new formula. A third 180 degree turn would have been too much, so Cosby and the Coca-Cola company parted ways. Bill Cosby was the only person who left the company following the snafu, largely because it didn’t cost the soda giant any money: the publicity helped them.
It was also mentioned on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me last week, or maybe the week before. Leading to Peter Sagal’s joke: “I believe what Cosby said to the Coke people was, I can’t imagine anything that would be more damaging to my reputation!”
