The Most Boring Oscars Ever?
As many wise people have pointed out, it’s both odd and an act of great hubris that the Academy Awards show goes on for over three and a half hours, much longer than any of the nominated films.And as a reward for sitting through endless technical awards, viewers get to see something that sort of resembles a variety show but, this year in particular, mostly resembled paint drying.The only real suspense was around how host Chris Rock would handle the whole #OscarsSoWhite controversy, which he did with his usual flair and grace (although he did manage to piss off the Asian community with a gag-gone-wrong.)There wasn’t a whole lot of visible social media around the event. Instagram had a link when you logged in the next day to let you see some highlights, Kohl’s Periscoped a “viewing party” with SNL’s Vanessa Bayer during the commercial breaks and Snapchat, in the only clear win, made their Oscar “Live Story” available via web browser where it was more easily shared. (Snapchat content is normally only available via the mobile app.)While the Super Bowl is home to all sorts of herculean commercial efforts, the Oscars are still catching up. IBM’s spot with Carrie Fisher around human intelligence was clever (but also baffling, given the context), CenturyLink’s film buff spot with Paul Giametti was a strong win, but the rest? Android ran a touching and well-produced spot about bullying and standing up for your friends, featuring anthropomorphized rocks, paper and scissors, but the ultimate tie-in to Android was anyone’s guess. And Kohl’s spots about gratitude, a theme carried out in the “this is a freaking ad people” heavy Periscope segments was also baffling for a department store where people you know, buy stuff they don’t really need because it looks good.Perhaps brands held back because there was so much controversy around this year’s awards, or maybe viewers are just getting tired of the onslaught, but the buzz around this year’s Oscars seemed far tamer than it has been in previous years.There seemed to be some missed opportunities from brands associated with movies and entertainment, to at least connect fans and stars or fans and brands—there wasn’t a whole lot of that going on.There’s always next year, when the focus will be on the films rather than the color of the people who are (or aren’t) in them.
