Back in Black? Seven up changes spokespeople strategy.

During the 70's, 7Up had a successful ad campaign with Tony Award winning director and actor Geoffrey Holder. He was the "cool, crisp and clean" Uncola Man. The campaign was a wild success.

In 1987, the animated 7Up Spot appeared as the soda's mascot. He was cool...but not as cool as Geoffrey. That campaign did just moderately well.

Two years (or so) ago, Young & Rubicam hired comedian Orlando Jones as the new 7Up spokesperson. The campaign was a hit. However, last year, Orlando decided to quit advertising to concentrate more on movies.

The current spokesperson is a funny comedian named Godfrey. Until recently Godfrey was a struggling actor/comedian living in NYC. He got his first break on the Bravo Channel's reality TV show "The It Factor". For adgrunts outside of the U.S., The It Factor follows twelve aspiring actors for a six month period and tapes their acting trials and tribulations as they try to make it big. The show actually videotaped Godfrey's cellphone conversation with his agent when Godfrey heard he booked the 7Up job.

With the exception of the 7Up Spot, all of 7Up's spokespeople were African-Americans. This is a dumb question...but do adgrunts think this is a coincidence or some part of a calculated marketing strategy? Did Geoffrey Holder do such a great job in the '70s that 7Up is still trying to recapture his magic now?