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". 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