Kathleen Moriarty
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Saturday Night Live is known for making viewers laugh on a weekly basis, but the show recently assumed a new role: being Pepsi’s unofficial advertising agency. This past Saturday night, SNL surprised viewers when, at 3 separate times after breaking for commercials, viewers saw 3 different versions of the “MacGruber” sketch. Each spot featured Pepsi like a normal commercial would, yet neither Pepsi nor its advertising agency had any input in their creation. In one night, SNL removed the advertising agency (aka the middle man) from the equation and in a way became its own agency. This is a move that will potentially diminish agencies’ influence and power in the near future. Typically, commercials and advertising campaigns are created by advertising agencies. More recently, companies are avoiding agencies by reaching out to consumers to create their commercials. Doritos Crash the Super Bowl initiative invited consumers to submit original spots for the chance of being shown during the Super Bowl and winning 1 million dollars. Now TV executives will be responsible not only for providing original programming content; they will also be tasked with creating attention-getting commercials or tactics to keep viewers in front of their TVs during the entire 30- or 60-minute window.  Hit hard by the sagging economy and mindful of the need to keep ad-zapping couch potatoes watching during ad breaks, TV executives are now open to ideas about mixing ads and programs they would likely have spurned just five years ago. Programmers are stepping up as marketers show more interest in crafting promotions tied directly to the content in which they appear. That gives a media outlet running the show more power.
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