Viewers who tuned in to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on a recent Monday night may have taken note of a rather lengthy commercial break in between the show’s two guests that night, Garth Brooks and Drew Starkey.
Before the show resumed, they saw ads for: Moana II; the new iPhone; Versace Eros cologne; Ebay; Starbucks; Shopify; Allstate Insurance; the new Showtime series, “The Agency;” Cascade dishwasher cubes; McDonald’s; Progressive Insurance; Bose earbuds; turkeys from Target; Tremfiy, Skyrizi, and Cabenuvea for your medical conditions; as well as promos for Mary Poppins, Dancing with the Stars, and The Wonderful World of Disney Holiday Spectacular. And—as a good pitch would always include—many more!
This series of product messages added up to about 11 minutes and 30 seconds of commercial and promo time, which is, in the language of TV advertising, one mighty big pod.
But looks can be deceiving. If you ask the folks at ABC, they’ll tell you it was actually two five-minute pods surrounding an in-show commercial starring Kimmel himself as the host of a Google Shopping-branded game show called “Can You Gift It?”
All of which serves to highlight the current state of a not exactly new-to-late-night phenomenon: brand integration.
The Kimmel show has been doing it for more than ten years now, albeit usually in a more homegrown fashion, as it did with the above integration for Hi-CHEW, which was introduced by Kimmel from his desk.
But as tempting as it may be to suggest that the impetus behind all this is to backfill for lost viewers and declining revenue, late night having commercial content in the body of a show is more ancient than new.
After all, Ed McMahon used to feed a dog Alpo in the middle of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in the 1970’s.
Of course, today’s in-show ads bear little resemblence to those old Alpo spots. Recently on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, the host introduced an elaborate comedy bit that featured just about every on-air talent on the show, including head writer A.D. Miles, that extended Fallon’s relationship with long-running sponsor Ford. The five-minute segment parodied a bunch of cowboy cliches with Jimmy raising a “Baby Bronco” from childhood (as in, toy status) to young pony, and finally hard-working steed.
What distinguishes these integrations is the comedy content, which is consistent with these shows’ comic sensibilities.
At Saturday Night Live, commercial parodies go all the way back to show #1. To this day, no one tells Lorne Michaels or the show’s writers what to parody, but if their creative juices happen to flow toward a major sponsor, all the better—and if said ad contains some key words the sponsor wants to hear associated with its product, you can bet some money is changing hands over it.
The best recent example is the Maybelline sketch from a recent episode hosted by Ariana Grande, which played out as a classic SNL commercial parody. Cast member Chloe Fineman, who already had a dead-on Jennifer Coolidge impression in her repertoire, played the actress glossing up for a date and conversing in the mirror with her likeness, played by the talented Grande, whose impression was at least equally effective.
The two exchanged tips for the date, (Grande:“You could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be?” Fineman: Living!”) while applying generous helpings of Maybelline lip gloss. And doing all this while laying down the ad copy in over-the-top fashion, starting with “Maybelline super-stay long-wear liquid lip color,” and winding up, after Dana Carvey arrives as a third Jennifer, with additional descriptives including “long-liner, watercolor, leather” and “long-lasting mouth magic” and “ultimate plumper gloss-colored liquid lip color.”
Maybelline, not for nothing, is one of SNL‘s tentpole sponsors for its 50th season. Those lucky enough to score seats at recent episodes of the show have been handed gift bags on the way out with Maybelline-branded mascara, lip stain, lip balm, and foundation.
SNL drew some attention for agreeing to tie in Please Don’t Destroy with Allstate’s “Mayhem” character for a bit that played a few weeks back, and a more recent series of ads for Capital One (another tentpole sponsor) featuring former cast members Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer reprising their old “Delicious Dish” characters. But those were more traditional ads, and as such they ran clearly inside the commercial time in the show.
The bottom line is it’s about the bottom line, true. And maybe some hosts in the past (or even seasons of SNL past) would steer clear of overt connections with a product. But show business has always been a two-word phrase.
It was never journalism, although an NBC News anchor named John Cameron Swayze—predecessor of the team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley—used to do commercials on the side proving Timex watches could work underwater, saying: “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
Which is not too far off from “ultimate plumper gloss-colored liquid lip color.”
What was the total amount of commercials in the hour long show? Was that more than usual?