The True Origins of Branded Content Are Much Stupider Than You Thought

The genre finally gets the fake 500-year history it deserves

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You might think branded content is a relatively newfangled marketing ploy. But one production company wants you to know it’s actually been around for a while—actually, since the days of Michelangelo’s David.

A gag promo from Above Average—an online comedy subsidiary of SNL creator Lorne Michael’s Broadway Productions—details the history of branded content since 1501, using a documentary-style approach featuring (mostly) fake experts.

“David was commissioned by Salvatore’s Stone Heaving Shed in 16th century Florence,” explains one, “as part of their marketing campaign, ‘Get Chiseled at Sal’s.'”

Get chiseled.

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