Product placement has become a (fairly) accepted practice in television, but that doesn’t mean it has lost its power to shock. During Saturday’s edition of SNL, a MacGruber skit played like a veritable commercial for Pepsi. And just so you know, it was; an NBC insider confirmed that Pepsi ponied up some cash for the prime real estate in late night (Pepsi is also advertising during the Super Bowl on NBC and sponsored the concert Thursday in Tampa’s Ford Amphitheater that served as a kickoff to the big game).
Though integrating sponsors into the net’s popular late night show should certainly represent a feather in the cap for NBC Entertainment Co-Chair Ben Silverman (whose mandate has long been to find new revenue streams for the ailing net), such practices remain a bone of contention among Hollywood unions like SAG. In fact, the actors want to benefit financially from product placement in their next contract with the conglomerates, along with the power to say no to, like, holding a can of Pepsi in a movie or TV series. The actors, by the way, have yet to sign that new deal, but let us not digress. Check out part three of last night’s skit below.
Update: The MacGruber skitvertisement also ran as a stand-alone ad during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
It’s one thing for funny shameless promotions… it’s another for pathetic shameless promotions… Can you guess which one this was?
This was aired during commercial time. It was not integrated into the actual show.
I didn’t mind the Pepsi product placement, but Richard Dean Anderson rocked in the bits. Loved that he could make fun of himself!
You could tell due to lack of audience reactions and the position that they were actual commercials. And I say: kudos! I thought they were funny.
I personally took it as also mocking the way product placement is nowadays. Which made it funny.
did anyone else see the rest of the snl episode? it was horribly unfunny.
> I personally took it as also mocking the way product placement is nowadays. Which made it funny.
Um, yeah, it’s not selling out as long as you smirk while you’re doing it.
Wow. That really wasn’t funny. I thought it might be because I’ve seen product placement done right (on Arrested Development, the Burger King promotion was priceless), but all he did was repeat Pepsi over and over again. This was really the best they could come up with?
the beloved show ‘the loop’ had a couple awesome product placement episodes as well.
I was really excited to see the real McGuyver!
I watched SNL and it was terrible. A waste of Steve Martin.
This is exactly why I don’t watch NBC. Between their use of popular shows like The Office to plug crap like The Biggest Loser, charging 99 cents for on-demand episodes of their one good sitcom on Comcast, dragging out the death throes of a once-good drama like E.R. to wring out the maximum dollars they can, turning the few shows I do watch into commercials for crappy soda I will never buy, and taking cheap political shots and calling it comedy, it’s a no-brainer to switch the channel. I’m not a mindless drone with a wallet, no matter how much you want to treat me like one. Have a nice life NBC.
oh my god people. The entire dialouge was “pepsi pepsi pepsi” and you’re complaining that perhaps the product placement was maybe a little too obvious? That was the point! Anyone who thinks this was SNL selling out are basically the same people who complained that “Dude, Where’s My Car?” was a stupid movie. Were you expecting Academy Award quality writing in a movie with the word dude in the title?
I am a HUGE Will Forte fan & love McGruber. This was horrible. It was just blatant & unfunny. I hope product placement doesn’t invade McGruber again.
I thought it was hilarious. Not crazy-funny, but still pretty good.