Was “MacGruber\ a “Saturday Night Live\ sketch or Pepsi commercial?
Depending on when you were watching television over the weekend, it was hard to tell. On Saturday night’s “SNL,” the recurring bit starring cast member Will Forte aired three times during the show, each time with comical over-the-top promotion for Pepsi. Then on Sunday night, one of the same “MacGruber” sketches – in which Forte plays a parody of the `80s action series “MacGyver” – aired during NBC’s broadcast of the Super Bowl as a commercial. As it turns out, all were paid commercials by Pepsi, made in collaboration with producer Lorne Michaels’ “Saturday Night Live.” The segments weren’t product placement, but commercials paid for by Pepsi and produced by “SNL.” Though they appeared to be sketches on “SNL,” they ran during allotted commercial breaks. NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman said Pepsi paid full freight for the spots – which sold for about $3 million per 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. “They really made it very funny and obvious, so I don’t thin
