Logo

Bad News for Oscars—and Advertisers?

Feb 20, 2009  •  Post A Comment

The latest Academy Award winners won’t be known until Sunday night, but already the losers are clear: Oscar himself, and most likely that the brands that paid to be in his midst.
The 2009 Academy Awards can, sadly, again be reasonably predicted to be among the lowest-rated Academy Awards telecasts on record.
Why? Blame Opie.
When Ron Howard’s critically beloved but box-office-anemic “Frost/Nixon,” which has a current domestic box-office haul of barely $17 million, received a best-picture nomination by edging out the second-highest-grossing film of all time, “The Dark Knight,” this year’s Oscar telecast’s fate was sealed, many experts say.
Best-picture nominees at the box office
Consider: In the years when nominated films’ grosses are high, the telecast’s ratings get a commensurate boost. When “Titanic” edged out popular pictures such as “As Good As It Gets,” “Good Will Hunting,” “L.A. Confidential” and “The Full Monty,” the five best-picture nominees enjoyed a combined $996 million box-office haul in the U.S. alone. The result: More than 57.25 million viewers tuned to the 1998 Oscar telecast.
By comparison, in 2008, the combined best-picture Oscar nominees — “There Will Be Blood,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Juno,” “Michael Clayton” and “Atonement” — managed only $356 million in domestic grosses. The result: the lowest Oscar ratings on record, with only 31.76 million viewers on average — almost half of 1998’s ratings.
This year’s best-picture Oscar nominees are especially weak at the box office: Odds-on favorite “Slumdog Millionaire” has made only $89 million; “Milk” has grossed just $26 million so far; and “The Reader,” $20 million. Only “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” broke out, raking in $122 million at home. Combined domestic gross, including “Frost/Nixon’s” $17 million: just shy of $275 million.
While no one can be certain how low Oscar’s ratings might go on Sunday, but as one media-buying-agency executive put it, nominee “Kate Winslet as an illiterate pedophile Nazi war criminal? Come on, already: Put a fork in it — it’s done.”
Bargain hunters
Indeed, many top brands stayed away from the telecast this year, but others are bargain-hunting.
—Hyundai Motor America jumped into General Motors’ old spot, with eight total ads airing during the ABC telecast.
—Coca-Cola will run seven ads in the Oscars, according to spokeswoman Susan Stribling. While the focus will largely be on Diet Coke — one ad will even revive the old slogan “Just for the taste of it” — the company will also run three ads touting Coca-Cola and urging viewers to do positive things such as recycling. Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett crafted two of the Coke ads, while independent Wieden & Kennedy did the rest, including the Diet Coke work.
—L’Oreal, a five-year sponsor, bailed out, a spokesman said, because although Oscar “had been a very successful property for us … last fall we decided to explore new avenues for reaching our consumer.”
Fear of record-low Nielsen ratings, of course, may be only part of the story.
“I don’t think the movies have anything to do with L’Oreal leaving this year,” said one Hollywood talent-agency branding agent who declined to be named. “The economy turned to poo-poo, and everyone had to cut,” the agent added.
The branding agent also cautioned that low-grossing films aren’t necessarily the bane of viewers or advertisers.
“I would argue the reverse,” the agent said. “People aren’t going out as much. As long as there are those stars on the red carpet, and you’ve got an underdog story [in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’], I think people will watch on a cold Sunday night. And for brands, you’re selling a lifestyle instead of a quantity.”
Why one advertiser’s still buying
Craig Culver, CEO and co-founder of Culver Franchising System, a Prairie du Sac, Wisc.-based quick-service restaurant, agreed. He has purchased a 60-second spot on E!’s Oscar pre-show and a 30-second spot in the ABC telecast.
“I guess [it’s] the second phase to our marketing program — the Culverization of the world,” Mr. Culver said laughing.
His 395 Culver’s restaurants are in only 17 states. Yet competitor Sonic Corp., the nation’s largest chain of drive-in restaurants, has been advertising on national cable since 2004 and reaching into markets hundreds of miles from the nearest Sonic franchise.
“This is 100% for our operators, some of whom are a little isolated,” Mr. Culver said. “We have just one restaurant in Cheyenne, Wyo. We’ve got just nine restaurants in the state of Texas. We see it as an opportunity to grow our business.”
(Brian Steinberg and Jean Halliday contributed to this report.)

46 Comments

  1. I’m Looking for a project to volunteer in this might not be on topic but is there anything you can recomend me? I would really apperciate it thanks!

  2. Thanks for posting this. Would be intrested to read more or possibly please contact me by email thank you!

  3. if every editor wrote like you believe me the world would be a better place! this was an excellent read expecting more!

  4. if every editor wrote like you believe me the world would be a better place! this was an excellent read expecting more!

  5. if every editor wrote like you believe me the world would be a better place! this was an excellent read expecting more!

  6. Thanks for posting this. Would be intrested to read more or possibly please contact me by email thank you!

  7. Thank you for a great post

  8. Wonderful to read!

  9. Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol

  10. I love the expression. Everyone needs to express there own opinion and feel free to hear others. Keep it up 🙂

  11. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  12. This is good info! Where else can if ind out more?? Who runs this joint too? Keep up the good work 🙂

  13. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  14. Credit for the great blog post. I am glad I have taken the time to read this.

  15. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  16. Hey how are you doing? I just wanted to stop by and say that it’s been a pleasure reading your blog. I have bookmarked your website so that I can come back & read more in the future as well. plz do keep up the quality writing

  17. Love all the opinions expressed here! How is everyone? Love how everyone expresses whatr they feel 🙂

  18. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  19. I would like to start my own blog one day. This was a really nice blog that you made here. Keep up the success 😛

  20. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  21. Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care and see you soon

  22. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  23. I would like to start my own blog one day. This was a really nice blog that you made here. Keep up the success 😛

  24. I agree with your thoughts here and I really love your blog! I’ve bookmarked it so that I can come back & read more in the future.

  25. Neat blog layout! Very easy on the eyes.. i like the colors you picked out

  26. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  27. Hey how are you doing? I just wanted to stop by and say that it’s been a pleasure reading your blog. I have bookmarked your website so that I can come back & read more in the future as well. plz do keep up the quality writing

  28. Weird… I just found your website by searching for ‘financial spreadbetting’ on Google. But I can’t see any posts about that subject on here?

  29. I would like to start my own blog one day. This was a really nice blog that you made here. Keep up the success 😛

  30. Interesting layout on your blog. I really enjoyed reading it and also I will be back to read more in the future.

  31. I came across a link to your website on another site, and I should say… Your website is tons better. You make the subject easier to understand, thanks

  32. High quality info here! Keep up the great work. I love the feelings being expressed.

  33. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  34. Love the blog here. Nice colors. I am definitely staying tuned to this one. Hope to see more.

  35. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  36. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  37. Hey how are you doing? I just wanted to stop by and say that it’s been a pleasure reading your blog. I have bookmarked your website so that I can come back & read more in the future as well. plz do keep up the quality writing

  38. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  39. Love all the opinions expressed here! How is everyone? Love how everyone expresses whatr they feel 🙂

  40. Maybe many of the commentors basic d istaste for Aol is stemming from an overlooking from the manufacturers romantic relationship to your net. A synergetic and harmonious 1st in my opinion.

  41. I would like to start my own blog one day. This was a really nice blog that you made here. Keep up the success 😛

  42. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  43. I love the writing relevancy of your site and it does a beautiful decent job of presenting the info.

  44. Why do notyou guys just come out and say we love easy logos!???

  45. I recently came across your blog site and also have been reading through along. I thought I’d depart my extremely first remark. Wonderful blog. I’ll retain v isiting th is web internet site quite frequently.

  46. I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.. 🙂

Leave a Reply to Web Designer Phoenix Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)