SNL 01-31-09: MacGruber Commercial?? (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

I starting recording the first 30 minutes of SNL last Saturday night so I could flip through the commericals as I watched it...halfway through the show, when it went to commercial, the show seemed to come back rather quickly.

Did I click through all of the commercials that fast? Hmmmm, maybe I was just tired...the MacGruber skit came back on (the one with all the Pepsi references) and I laughed, but then was confused (and angry) when it went back to commercial. I thought "Oh great, this is the sign of the times; either SNL just doesn't have enough skits to fill their 1.5 hours or the TV stations are hurting for money and are cramming more commercials into the show."

Well, I didn't think anything about it until a friend sent me this article:
Is `SNL' leasing its sketches to advertisers? - Yahoo! News

LMAO! No wonder why I was so confused!

 

[todd s]

My wife was more disturbed by how Richard Dean Anderson looked.

 

[Jerome Grate]

I've seen the commercial a few times already since the Superbowl.

 

[David Norman]

I guess I don't get the idea in the first place -- "Pepsi, So good it's to die for" or Pepsi makes you Stupid like Pepsuber"

Neither interesting not remotely funny either as a SNL skit and certainly not the message I'd think you would want for a product.

It's like the new McDonalds Cafe commercials -- a bunch of morons pretending to like Fancy coffee, listening to jazz, and reading books now can dispense with the pretense and just return to stupid.

 

[Jon Martin]

It was a Pepsi commercial, not part of the show.

I guess the sketch is dead. They can't bring it back when it is now shilling for products.

 

[MarkHastings]

Yeah, he looked all bloated.

OT: They should have used him when Neil Patrick Harris did that "Two First Names" skit...then they could have chastised him for playing a character with only one name.

 

[Hanson]

You are assuming that there is some sort of integrity on the part of TPTB. Plus, it behooves Pepsi to have their product linked with an ongoing sketch -- I don't think anyone at SNL considers McGruber dead and buried because of this.

 

[Jon Martin]

Well, it was an actual ad. It wasn't part of the show. It aired during a commercial break. It was actually the second ad of the break too.

I'm sure many at home thought it was a sketch. But it wasn't. It was a commercial.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Its somewhat ironic that people are complaining about the MacGruber as SNL selling out when that was the whole point of the ad (MacGruber actually selling himself to Pepsi).

 

[MarkHastings]

The thing with comapnies like Pepsi and Coke is, it's not about good or bad advertising, it's all about getting something out there.

Everyone has a brand loyalty and an antiquated SNL skit won't do any less harm than if they didn't run the ad at all.

It's almost to the point where the name is more important than the commercial. Think about Coke or Pepsi ads in the past. Whenever a funny commercial would air, you'd almost forget which soda they were promoting because you were too wrapped up in the funniness of the ad.

At least with this ad, as bad as it was, there was no mistaken which soda they were promoting.

 

[ChristopherG]

Not near as bad as John Elway at the coin toss for the super bowl itself. Holy crap! Talk about the crypt keeper....

 

[Jon Martin]

Did this air during the Superbowl? I only saw it during SNL.

If it is an ad disguised as a sketch, that is one thing. But if it is an actual ad during other programming, that is different.

 

[AnthonyC]

One part of it aired during the Super Bowl.

Normally I love MacGruber, and I wouldn't mind him shilling...if it were actually remotely funny. Just saying "Pepsi Pepsi Pepsi" over and over and calling himself Pepsuber isn't.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I didn't think it was an ad until just now when I read this thread -- I saw it on Saturday, and then when I saw it during the Super Bowl, I just figured that Pepsi had worked something out with SNL.

 

[Hanson]

All of that has already been established. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. McGruber is still property of SNL and there's no reason why the sketch won't come back (unless, perhaps, Forte leaves).

 

[MatthewA]

I saw this during the SB. Neither my Mom or I thought it was remotely funny.

Even Patty and Selma would be appalled.