It was difficult to tell if one advertisement that ran on the Super Bowl was a spot for Pepsi or for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” the Associated Press reports. The commercial, based on series of skits featuring “SNL” character MacGruber, were paid for by Pepsi yet made in collaboration with “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Today” co-host Matt Lauer appeared in an ad for corporate sibling Universal Pictures’ new theatrical release “Land of the Lost, TelevisionWeek says. Journalism professors said Lauer’s appearance in a commercial reflects changing standards for TV anchors and hosts. NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman said of the ‘SNL’ skit that he didn’t think there was any confusion among viewers, and that the network needs “to evolve and do more and more things,” AP says.
—Aimee Picchi
Did Lauer, ‘SNL’ Blur Super Bowl Lines?
Feb 3, 2009 • Post A Comment
This may be the first time I have ever seen Matt Lauer and jorunalism mentioned in the same sentence.
Amen. Lauer is like Mike Wallace, who used to do quiz shows and commercials in the 1950s, and a lot less like Edward R. Murrow, who did hoever host a reality show to make a buck.
Let’s not forget Ohio University basically “waived” some course credits to get Lauer his diploma, based on now-controversial”life credit” — how many dropouts would like to cut THAT deal?
On the SNL ad, at the opening of the ad I was thinking it was an advertisement for SNL but once I saw the Pepsi can I knew it was an ad for Pepsi. I thought it was rather cleaver of them to make an ad in that way.