The Commercial is the Show
By Bryan Berlin on 10/29/2009
Category: AssessmentLast weekend during Saturday Night Live, Anheuser Busch, the producers of Bud Lite made a bold move. They bought all the commercial time over the course of the entire show. It's the first time in the show's 35-year history that they've ever had one sole advertiser providing all the nationally aired commercials. They also looked to strengthen their ad campaign with a segment called "Backstage with Bud Light Golden Wheat," which aired never before seen SNL clips as a way to help draw in fans during commercials.

While this may have been a decent plan, it also seems like Anheuser Busch did not fully think this through. First of all, SNL airs on a Saturday Night at 11:30. Now you'd have to except that most of the target audience for Bud Light Gold Wheat would be either out at a bar or at a party and not at home watching SNL. Of course, these days people have that beautiful tool called the DVR, which means all those people out drinking will be able to watch SNL the next day. However, DVRs are also equipped with that magical fast forward button, so really Bud Light never reaches the majority of people who would drink their product.

Sure Anheuser Busch made a bold move buying all the ad space for a show, but the move may have come 5 years too late. In today's world people watch commercials less and less, and ad teams are looking to bring their products right to the source: in the shows. An episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" the other week had such a shameless promotion of Dave and Busters that was intrinsic to the storyline. "30 Rock" has also used this product placement approach, but at least made fun of themselves for it when Tina Fey then asked "can we have our money now?" in the middle of the show after a promotion for Snapple. In all seriousness, I was surprised an SNL sketch wasn't centered around Bud Light Golden Wheat. Is advertising completely losing power? What does it take for advertisers to connect with their audience?
Tags: advertising, commercials, snl
[Additional Photos: "MacPepsi" NBC, 2009; "A" Anheuser Busch, 2009]
- Permalink

- Comment
We have updated our Privacy Policy. Please click here for details.









ACCESS






