By most accounts, Harry Styles did a fine job last weekend during his time as host on Saturday Night Live, tasked with not only being the show’s musical act, but also appearing in a wide variety of comedy sketches. One of the many highlights that didn’t involve Styles turning into the personification of Joan’s dog was his turn as the (American-accented) Sara Lee social media employee who kept switching up Sara lee’s Instagram account with his own. This led to such curious posts as Sara Lee commenting on a picture of Nick Jonas, “Wreck me daddy” and “Destroy me king.” The employee also expressed his post-threesome disappointment under a picture of Sara Lee Texas toast. He got off with a second warning, especially since his boss had previously hosted a Sara Lee harness party.
While we have to applaud the details prevalent in the bit (best: the plate of pound cake slices on the conference table), you have to wonder, what would Sara Lee’s response be?
TV Line reports that at first, the company seemed a bit flummoxed by the sketch, especially since a bunch of SNL viewers began commenting “wreck me daddy” on its @SaraLeeBread Instagram account. It appeared to turn off IG comments, causing new SNL cast member Bowen Yang, who appeared in the Sara Lee scene, to comment on Twitter:
Bimbo Bakeries, Sara Lee’s parent company, then released the following statement:
We didn’t know about or participate in the creation of the skit so as you can imagine, waking up to all those comments threw us for a bit of a loop. We didn’t delete any comments but did temporarily hide them until we could read through and understand what happened. All comments are now visible and we will be monitoring for any that violate Instagram standards. While the explicit jokes in the skit do not align with Sara Lee Bread’s brand, we know SNL pushes the envelope for laughs and are taking it all in stride.
Good sports, Sara Lee! No wonder nobody doesn’t not like you or whatever. Also, kudos on what appears to be a mega-ton of free marketing.
