By SARAH WOODWARD
With 30-seconds of ad time selling for $1 million, combined with a Sunday night broadcast, this years Academy Awards show is challenging the Super Bowl for the distinction of Super Sunday. Perhaps now more than ever the Oscars are the Super Bowl for women, as they have been dubbed by Marv Goldsmith, president of sales and marketing for the ABC Television Network, which will broadcast the event live on March 21.
In fact, Pepsi chose The 71st Annual Academy Awards over Super Bowl XXXIII for the launch of its new campaign. Usually we launch our new creative on the Super Bowl, said John Harris, senior manager of Pepsi-Cola public relations. But this year we chose the Academy Awards because its closer to our summer selling season. Harris also said at least three star-studded and fun spots created by BBDO New York will break during the telecast. While he declined to elaborate, the cola-makers new campaign is reportedly titled Joy of Cola and features child actor Hallie Eisenberg whose voice is transformed into those of soul singer Aretha Franklin, actor/blues singer Isaac Hayes and actor Marlon Brando. In the ads, Franklin sings a new Joy of Cola jingle. The spots signal an end to Pepsis former campaign, Generation Next, which failed to boost the soft drink makers share of the market.
Scheduled for live broadcast from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, and preceded by a 30-minute pre-show hosted by Geena Davis, this years Oscar ceremony is also beginning a half-hour earlier than usual. The question is: will these changes in day and time translate into a larger audience? Last years show reportedly attracted 87 million Americans, and if those numbers continue to grow, the Oscars will rival the Super Bowl as the most watched TV event of the year. The Super Bowl typically attracts an audience of about 130 million Americans.
Goldsmith, for one, predicts a boost in viewership for the Oscars. I think at eight oclock [EST] on a Sunday, more people will come to it, he said. While in the past the Academy generally chose Monday night to honor its own because it was the slowest night at the box office, this year, Goldsmith said, We saw an opportunity to do [the show] on a Sunday night, which has a little higher [cache]. It sounded good to [the Academy] and it sounded good to us too.
And it likely sounded good to the shows sponsors who, in addition to Pepsi, include Revlon, General Motors, American Express, Sears, Gap, Kodak, AT&T, First Union, McDonalds, Serta, Claritin, Merril Lynch and Charles Schwab. They all have their reasons for being there, said Goldsmith, not the least of which is the fantastic reach and the environment for the commercials that the Academy Awards provide. Its the glamour event of the year.
That high-gloss factor is why its no surprise that Revlon is likely to run as many as eight 30-second spots on Oscar night. Revlons New York-based agency of record is Tarlow Advertising. Unfortunately, little more could be confirmed about the companys promotional plans. As with the Super Bowl, advertisers, agencies, production houses, post shops and other support services are reluctant to reveal their plans at this premature juncture. The same holds true for Kodak, which plans to run several new spots created by Ogilvy & Mather in New York.
Part of the reticence can be traced to the fact that decisions often arent finalized until the 11th hour. Such is the case with the Gap, whose advertising is handled by an in-house agency, and Sears, whose agencies are Young & Rubicam, New York, and Ogilvy & Mather, Chicago. A Gap spokeswoman said the retailer simply had not confirmed any advertising plans, while a spokeswoman for Sears said that the company is presently re-evaluating its creative. While Sears hasnt retired the Softer Side campaign, it is giving serious consideration to new possibilities.
More forthcoming was American Express. Spokeswoman Emily Porter confirmed that the creditor will be running five spots out of Ogilvy & Mather, New York, that feature Jerry Seinfeld. The newest one, Drug Store, was helmed by Rob Pritts out of Backyard Productions, Santa Monica and Chicago, and broke last week. The remaining four are recognizable by name and were directed by David Kellogg of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films: London, Supermarket, Gas Station and Rags to Riches.
Less secrecy surrounds spots that have already broken. Mattress manufacturer Serta has been sponsoring the Academy Awards for five years and usually uses the telecast to launch its new campaign. This year, however, Serta launched its new creative-two :30s directed by Bruce Dowad of Bruce Dowad Associates in Hollywood out of Publicis & Riney, Chicago-in late February. One of them, Sweetheart, is slated to air during the Oscars. Designed to be soothing yet entertaining according to Sertas VP of advertising Susan Ebaugh, the spot targets women and involves a dream sequence that features the Cornelius character from Planet of the Apes. The second spot, Pool, is also a dream sequence, this time featuring actor Mickey Rooney, however it is not airing during the Oscars.
Getting prime airtime is General Motors/Oldsmobiles Pomegranate directed by Danny Weisberg of Orbit Productions, Hollywood, for Leo Burnett Co., Chicago. The spot premiered on the Super Bowl and will also air during the Academy Awards. According to research conducted by Starcom Super Bowl DIALogue and furnished by Leo Burnett, Pomegranate, which spotlights Oldsmobiles Intrigue, Alero, Bravada, Silhouette and Aurora models, started something for the auto maker. Of the 107 people polled, 80 percent who saw the commercial had an improved opinion of Oldsmobile. The agency team on the spot included creative director Charley Wickman, associate creative director/copywriter Ron Smith, associate creative director/art director Roger Simpson, exec. producer Ron Nelken and producer Ray Swift.
First Union has reserved Oscar airtime for Noise, the visually exotic :60 created by Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, and directed by Steve Beck of Industrial Light+Magic Commercial Productions (ILMCP) in San Rafael and Los Angeles. The agency ensemble included creative director/art director Jerry Andelin, senior copywriter Paul Mimiaga and producer Avatar Kramer. According to a spokeswoman for ILMCP, Noise, which broke Dec. 25, is one in a group of five spots that make up the first half of ILMCPs assignment for the bank. Shooting on the second series of five is slated to begin at the end of March.
Also set to air during the Academy Awards are two :30s created by DDB Needham Chicago for McDonalds: Crew Futures, directed by Peter Care of bicoastal/international Satellite Films, and Boxer, directed by Joe Pytka via his Venice-based shop PYTKA. Both spots broke prior to the awards telecast and are a continuation of the fast-food giants Did somebody say McDonalds? campaign. The agency team behind Crew Futures included chief creative officer Bob Scarpelli, exec. creative director John Staffen, creative director/copywriter Mike Meyers, assoc. creative director/ art director Larry Butts and senior producer Win Peniston. Boxers creative team also included chief creative officer Scarpelli, as well as exec. creative director Jim Ferguson, copywriters Tim Charlesworth and Dave Linne, art directors Michael Kaplan and Mark Oosthuizen, and exec. producer Joel Goldsmith.
AT&T is running a newly revised version of the Personal Network spot which ran on the Super Bowl. Titled This is You, the :60 was created by Foote, Cone & Belding, New York, and directed by Peggy Sirota at bicoastal Mars Media. Creatives included exec. VP, deputy creative director Steve Baer, VP, creative director Nansee Keiter and senior VP, exec. producer Wendy Vitolo.
Merrill Lynchs plans for the Academy Awards could not be confirmed at press time; however the investment brokerage firm was at press time scheduled to launch a campaign out of J. Walter Thompson, New York, in early March. The campaign is said to trumpet Merrill Lynch as a company that believes in the power of the human spirit. One spot reportedly contrasts humans with technology and features blues singer B.B. King and his guitar. The point being made is that machines, in this case a guitar, arent much without the people who operate them. The tag is: Admire machines. Worship their inventors.
Academy Award sponsors Claritin and Charles Schwab could not be reached for comment.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More