Pornhub Gets Free (Spoof) Ad on 'SNL'

CHATSWORTH, Calif.—Adult megasite Pornhub may have had its bid thwarted to air a television ad during the 2013 Super Bowl, but now NBC's Saturday Night Live has broadcast one on behalf of the tube giant ... for free. Though the ad in question—which appeared as part of this weekend's "Saturday Night Live at Home" episode, the second such altered-format edition of the show to air since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—was of course intended as a spoof spot in the tradition of the hundreds SNL has produced since its beginning, the fact is it doesn't register in the slightest as very far off from what such an ad might have looked like if it had come from Pornhub itself. Framed as the type of pandemic-themed ad myriad companies are producing at the moment, it depicts various SNL cast members in their homes gazing at computer, tablet and phone screens as a woman offers soothing reassurances in voiceover like, "We don't know how long this will last ... but no matter what happens next, we'll be here for you. You may be isolated, but you're not alone ... because we're here, making these difficult times a little easier." It's a funny concept, to be sure, but much of the promotional material Pornhub has produced over the years—including that rejected 2013 Super Bowl ad—has had the very same tongue-in-cheek tone. In fact, one of the only things that distinctly pegs this as not a bona fide Pornhub ad (aside from its behing populated by SNL folk, natch), is the text across the bottom of the screen at the end proclaiming it as "Paid for by the Pornographers of America Association" ... sadly, yet another in the never ending line of industry misrepresentations in mainstream media. (More specifically, it's a perpetuation of the widespread fallacy that Pornhub somehow singlehandedly represents all of porn.) In any event, view SNL's Pornhub ad for yourself below:   Screenshot taken from Saturday Night Live's YouTube channel.