Comparing Apples To Apples

I frowned upon Pepsi's "Saturday Night Live" parody spot in an earlier post, but in the process of looking for something else, I stumbled upon another spot that put it the whole thing in some additional context.  First the mediocre Pepsi spot, from this year's Super Bowl (if you remember it, do yourself a favor and don't bother watching it):

I didn't see anyone else remarking on this in the days after it ran, but apparently that spot has some kind of meta-textual component; it's not a joke on the old MacGyver show and celebrity-cameo Super Bowl spots.  It seems to be meant as a parody of the old MacGyver show AS celebrity-cameo Super Bowl spot.  Take a look at this MasterCard spot from the 2006 Super Bowl:

The difference, of course, is the MasterCard spot is clever, well-produced and actually amusing in its understated way.  

It's not often you can make such apples-to-apples comparisons between different commercials.  Too bad for Pepsi.