In-show advertising is as old as late-night itself, but with shows facing declining ratings and shrinking budgets, sponsored content (or “brand activations,” as they’re called in marketing circles) has become increasingly common and, at times, more elaborate than ever before. In this recurring feature, we keep tabs on how late-night shows are working to wed commerce with comedy.
Our long national nightmare is over: Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez finally has his mustache back.
Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! saw the end of a saga that played over social media in recent days as Rodriguez was seen chasing his facial hair around New Orleans in a series of sponsored videos intended to hype up Pringles’ similarly-themed Super Bowl commercial.
While the first three installments of the series were released to JKL and Rodriguez’s Instagram and Facebook reels, its conclusion aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday night in an in-studio brand integration that featured both Rodriguez and Kimmel.
Welcoming viewers back from a commercial break following lead guest Zoe Saldana, Jimmy Kimmel paused to ask Rodriguez where his mustache had gone. “I still have my mustache,” Rodriguez responded, holding a hand-drawn mustache on his finger over his upper lip.
“I have a solution for you,” Kimmel said, rolling up his sleeve. “I grew a spare mustache on my arm in case anything like this ever happened.” (“I’m Italian. It just grows,” he explained.)
As it turned out, Kimmel didn’t need to sacrifice his forearm facial hair after all. Right after making his offer, a CGI Pringles can donning Rodriguez’s mustache flew into the studio and landed on Kimmel’s desk. The stache then flew to Rodriguez and slapped itself back onto the sidekick’s face.
“I got my mustache back!” Rodriguez exclaimed to cheers from the audience.
Last night’s Pringles brand integration was the last of three Super Bowl ad-themed integrations on Jimmy Kimmel Live in as many weeks, following recent pieces for Captain Morgan and Instacart.
