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.