The opening credits to last night’s broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” told viewers they’d get to see something they really like: a new short film from Please Don’t Destroy, the small troupe of writers who make frenetic vignettes that often shock as much as they delight. What was delivered, however, was decidedly different.
The three-person “PDD” team did turn up on screen, but not during the show. Instead, members Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy were part of a commercial from insurance giant Allstate that appeared during an ad break and had the trio holding forth opposite “Mayhem,” the longstanding ad character who has been played by actor Dean Winters for more than a decade. The original Please Don’t Destroy sketch that was supposed to air on “SNL” was cut by producers due to time constraints, according to a person familiar with the matter, and has been made available online.
The Allstate ad may have raised eyebrows among industry aficionados, because “SNL” executive producer Lorne Michaels has in the past frowned upon running commercials featuring current cast members during original broadcasts of his program. Advertisers using various modern-day “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players,” as the cast has been known, are typically told their commercials can only run during “SNL” repeats, out of concern that viewers might think the ads and the program are intertwined. In 2021, NBC ran an ad for Old Navy featuring Aidy Bryant — then a show mainstay — twice during a new “SNL” episode, spurring what one person familiar with the matter said at the time was a review as to why it happened.
In the current era, however, TV’s rules seem more easily bent.
As more one-time TV die-hards move to stream their favorite series, media companies are loosening their restrictions on sponsors. Sure, advertising has never been allowed in programs on HBO’s linear pay-cable network, but on Max, the streaming service operated by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, marketers can easily buy commercials in stand-out shows like “Girls” or “Game of Thrones.” TV networks for years aired presidential debates commercial-free. In 2024, however, both CNN and ABC News sold ads for their telecasts of these seminal political events. The networks can no longer rely on old conventions that may thwart new ways of collecting revenue.
The Allstate commercial is just one of a number of deals that NBC has crafted between advertisers and “SNL” producers during the show’s landmark 50th season. L’Oreal’s Maybelline, Volkswagen and T-Mobile are also hitching their brands to “SNL” in a bid to use the late-night series’ landmark anniversary to gain new attention for their cosmetics, autos and communications services. In March of 2023, Michaels made a presentation in Studio 8H, “SNL’s’” longtime home at NBC’s New York headquarters, to around 100 advertisers about what to expect as the anniversary drew near.
Such partnerships aren’t easy to launch or maintain. In 2017, “SNL” agreed to start working with advertisers to create bespoke commercials that would carry with them some of the look and feel of the program. One of the first was to be an ad from Verizon that had been written in part by Colin Jost. The commercial never turned up on air. Another deal struck at the time allowed Apple to put a laptop computer in a sketch. “SNL” insisted on running a quick “billboard” ahead of the bit that told viewers the Apple product was appearing due to a promotional deal.
Working with “SNL” requires a willingness to let Michaels’ team take the reins. “For Allstate, it was about getting comfortable and agreeing that we have to fit within the world of ‘SNL,’ and that’s what we have been able to do,” said Dave Marsey, senior vice president of media and growth marketing at Allstate during a presentation in October. Other late-night programs that occasionally work advertising into show segments have been equally as careful. Stephen Colbert, for example, enjoys a reputation on Madison Avenue as a strong advocate for his CBS program, “The Late Show,” and has been known to be quite vocal about his team’s control of the creative process.
Some advertisers may be willing to go along for the ride. Being able to work with Please Don’t Destroy “created an environment that was somewhat established so we wouldn’t be starting from scratch,” said Marsey, who was eager to use an appearance with established “SNL” properties to get injected into consumer conversation. “That’s what helped us in this big leap we are taking as a brand by being a part of SNL 50.”
Maybelline has run commercials for concealer featuring former “SNL” cast member Vanessa Bayer, and has plans to use another female “SNL” actor to spotlight another product. The cosmetics giant is the sponsor of a photo-booth experience that in-person to the show can use. T-Mobile has been sponsoring the live-streaming of host monologues during the current season on social media. And Volkswagen will give viewers of NBC’s Saturday-night college-football broadcasts live views of “SNL” rehearsals in the lead-up to what is expected to be a large primetime special in early 2025. The automaker is also running special ads that feature some of the best-known cast members of “SNL” as well as the company’s famous microbus.
“When NBCUniversal brought the ‘SNL’ property to us — a show that’s part of the zeitgeist — it just made sense that our two icons would come together,” said Jennifer Clayton, brand and growth marketing director for Volkswagen of America, during the October presentation.
“SNL” has tested such stuff in the past. In 2018, the show created a commercial for Google starring then-cast members Bryant and Kyle Mooney. In 2009, the show created a series of ads for Pepsi starring cast member Will Forte as his signature character, MacGruber. During the program’s first season, “SNL” ran live ads for Polaroid cameras during certain commercial breaks. Chevy Chase was among the cast members who participated.
Still, too much of a good thing could ruin a good thing. “SNL” may be hard-pressed to do dozens of such commercials, because its writers and producers often make fun of advertisements in “Weekend Update” segments and with a legion of satirical spots created over the years. If “SNL” is called upon to churn out more commercials for Allstate, Google and others, it may have less time to craft fake ones for Colon Blow, Little Chocolate Donuts, Mom Jeans or Oops I Crapped My Pants.
