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. 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