Saturday Night Live stars current and past shined bright in some of the buzziest commercials airing during NBC’s telecast of this year’s Big Game.
Super Bowl ads famously do not come cheap, though. Far from it. In addition to ponying up as much as $10 million per 30-second spot, many brands feel compelled to double down by casting a famous face (or several).
How did this year’s crop of Super Bowl spots featuring SNL cast members and/or alums make use of that added star wattage? And were the famous faces helped, or hurt, by their scripts?
Here is LateNighter’s case-by-case assessment, and worst-to-best ranking,
9. Kenan Thompson and Ana Gasteyer | Wegovy
DID THIS NEED CELEBRITIES? In a word, no. Do Thompson or SNL alum Gasteyer—or commercial co-stars DJ Khaled, Danielle Brooks, Danny Trejo, or John C. Reilly—actually use, and can thus vouch for, the weight loss aid? Who knows. Do any of them get to lean into their well-known public personas in this spot? Not really. This very easily could have been six regular folks.
DID THESE CELEBRITIES MAKE IT BETTER? Other than by boosting this spot’s profile by garnering media coverage of an otherwise dry pharma ad, no.
8. Marcello Hernández | Wells Fargo
DID THIS NEED A CELEBRITY? Not really, since Hernández simply ushers in party people to help bank customers “celebrate” savings, credit score boosts, and other financial wins.
DID THIS CELEBRITY MAKE IT BETTER? There was an opportunity here, for sure, but the script is far too vanilla to capitalize on the special something SNL fans know Hernández can bring. Only an off-air digital asset, where Hernández taught golf cart passengers to hop like a frog, had any personality.
7. Heidi Gardner | Homes.com
DID THIS NEED CELEBRITIES? SNL alum Gardner and two-time host Jeff Goldblum are the respective spokespeople for Homes.com and Apartments.com, so their involvement is a gimme.
DID THESE CELEBRITIES MAKE IT BETTER? The star here is the concept—Gardner and Goldblum rattle off and visit unlivable places their sites ostensibly could save you money on. It was plenty of fun, though, to see them floating in space or getting consumed by a haboob.
6. Bowen Yang | Ritz Crackers
DID THIS NEED CELEBRITIES? No one would have cared at all if some “salty” randos were spying on “Ritz Island “revelry, so having recent SNL alum Yang and four-time guest host Jon Hamm being the lookie-loos was fun. On paper, at least.
DID THESE CELEBRITIES MAKE IT BETTER? Hamm was given precious little to do, and Yang didn’t get to lean into his oversized shtick until the very end—and then, only to have five-time SNL host/wife-of-Colin Jost Scarlett Johansson shush him. Speaking of ScarJo, something about her “It’s party time!” line reading made me sad.
5. Mikey Day | eos Body Mist
DID THIS NEED A CELEBRITY? Given that it’s a riff on Day’s role as host of Netflix’s Is It Cake?, yes. Very much so.
DID THIS CELEBRITY MAKE IT BETTER? Day has nothing to do but be his Is It Cake? host-like self. Rather, it’s the clever premise—that the boom operator just off-camera is repeatedly mistaken by contestants for cake, because of her pistachio-scented body mist—that makes this a winning sell.
4. Tim Robinson | Rippling Corporate Software
DID THIS NEED A CELEBRITY? With all due respect to the mid-2010s SNL alum, who has since become quite the creator of eclectic and brilliant TV, he’s not a “celebrity” in the vein of, say, John Malkovich. But I think it helped to have the disappointed boss here be “somebody.”
DID THIS CELEBRITY MAKE IT BETTER? Robinson was actually an inspired choice, bringing a perfect mix of menace and nerdiness, followed by an amusing reaction to the news that “Baby Breck” has not been onboarded yet and thus cannot be used to terrorize a city.
3. Andy Samberg | Hellmann’s
DID THIS NEED A CELEBRITY? Obviously, the whole fun of this spot is to see the musically inclined SNL vet/Lonely Island member send up the legendary Neil (here “Meal”) Diamond. That said, was it almost hard to tell it’s Samberg beneath that distracting wig and stubble…?
DID THIS CELEBRITY MAKE IT BETTER? No one commits to the bit like Samberg; we shudder to think what a lesser clown would have done with this out-there premise.
2. Ben Stiller| Instacart
DID THIS NEED CELEBRITIES? Since it’s pretty much predicated on singer Benson Boone’s trademark gymnastics—and the Stiller character’s ill-fated attempt at same—yes.
DID THESE CELEBRITIES MAKE IT BETTER? You had us at Stiller playing a weird, wigged amalgam of his Anchorman, Dodgeball and Heavyweights characters, felled by a Spinal Tap-caliber, on-stage mishap.
1. Colin Jost and Michael Che | DraftKings
DID THIS NEED A CELEBRITY? Because it taps into the “Weekend Update” anchors’ “live” TV experience—here, starring in a live (though clearly and comedically not) Super Bowl commercial—yes.
DID THESE CELEBRITIES MAKE IT BETTER? You gotta love these guys’ well-established dynamic/banter. Plus, the schlocky nature of the dubbed-over dialogue gimmick has a whiff of the sort of spoof SNL itself might do.
Tell us, what were your favorite Super Bowl XL commercials—with SNL-brities, or not?
