Sepehen Colbert reacts to a brand memo from Nabisco, a paid commercial sponsor of his show. “You think you know Wheat Thins? [Bleep] you. [Bleep] you and the cracker you rode in on.”
Colbert goes on to violate one of the memo’s stipulations by stuffing seventeen crackers into his mouth. Only sixteen make a serving. With that “technical difficulties” interupt the program. Colbert returns to read an on-air apology.
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The real question, of course, is what does Kraft think of all this? On the one hand, they got razzed pretty publicly by someone who’d been paid a lot of money to promote their product. On the other, Colbert devoted nearly seven minutes entirely to their brand and his audience loved it.
“Wheat Thins is the brand that’s all about doing,” said Margalis. “And last night, we saw Stephen Colbert doing what he does best: finding the hilariousness in our culture. That’s why we chose to sponsor the segment in the first place. And let’s face it, our brand memo is a lot funnier when it’s read by Stephen Colbert.”
Wheat Thins’ marketing practices weren’t the only ones taken to task by Colbert this week. On Wednesday the retailer Target was the subject of his “The Word” segment.
Colbert cites a recent NYTimes report finding that retailers gather data to determine “your age, whether you are married and have kids, which part of town you live in, how long it takes you to drive to the store, your estimated salary, whether you’ve moved recently, what credit cards you carry in your wallet and what Web sites you visit.”
The segment includes the story of the father of a teenage girl who complained to Target that his daughter was mailed coupons for new mothers. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”
That dad called back a few days later to apologize.
“I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”
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