NBC’s "Saturday Night Live" is a lot easier to watch lately if one is in a slightly intoxicated state. So a new advertisting deal announced today between "SNL" and Anheuser- Busch sort of makes sense.
This weekend’s edition of the NBC series will be fully sponsored by the beermaker’s new Bud Light Golden Wheat. All network commercial time will be filled by ads for the Bud product, the first time "SNL" has been sponsored by a single advertiser.
As part of the deal, NBC will air "Backstage with Bud Light Golden Wheat" vignettes featuring unaired clips from "SNL" seasons past. And viewers will get to see highlights of beer-soaked viewing parties throughout the night.
"We were looking for a unique way to highlight Bud Light Golden Wheat’s launch," said Keith Levy, vice president, marketing, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. "During the episode, we are able to incorporate Bud Light Golden Wheat authentically as part of the show’s content, offer at-home viewers unprecedented backstage access during regular commercial slots and, at the same time, generate talk value among contemporary adult beer drinkers."
After making his comments, Levy took a bottle of Bud Light Golden Wheat (which, by the way, sounds sort of like a breakfast cereal), and just threw it on the grooooound.
Both NBC and ABC have previously done deals with advertisers to serve a sole sponsors of news-related programming.
