Melbourne Herald Sun, Friday February 11,2011
February is the biggest month of the year for American television. Unlike the bulk of Americans, this week you may not have been glued to the set for the Super Bowl, after all it’s not our sport. But movies are, so it’s odds-on that you will be there at the end of the month for the Oscars.
The best way to describe the Super Bowl is like the AFL Grand Final and the Melbourne Cup all in the same stadium at once. It's the football game every red-blooded American must see wherever they might be.
Hills of Afghanistan? Base in Iraq? Upper Klondike? Lower Plenty? If you're American you know by now that the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31 to 25.
This gives you some idea why companies pay $3 million for just 30 seconds of advertising space on the transmission - and fight tooth and claw to get a spot in the sacred space. They get their money’s worth too - this year’s Bowl was watched by 111 million Americans.
The other fighting and clawing happens at the Oscars on February 27. This is the second biggest event on American TV and it's not so small Downunder, either.
It has the advantage of being an endless show which leaves plenty of spaces for commercials so of course the stations love it.
Once again companies spend millions producing commercials as ritzy as the gowns on the red carpet, knowing that this is a time to show off.
Both spectacles are now putting a lot of effort into reaching the younger market. As in so many other areas, getting young people to take an interest is hard work.
The hit commercial in Super Bowl was a mobile phone ad featuring Justin Bieber and Ozzie Osbourne in space suits. Don't ask me to explain, it would take too long. Suffice it to say the teenage girls screamed with pleasure.
The Academy Awards is another show with hardening arteries, the average viewer's age is now 49.5 years. So they are going all-out to pep up their image.
They've brought in a hot advertising agency, Omelet LA, for a marketing campaign. It has been running since August, using a slogan "You're Invited". No doubt echoing the dreams of many a young actor and starlet.
This year's presenters have been chosen with a younger audience in mind. Instead of popular older presenters like Billy Crystal or even Hugh Jackman, this year they have selected two young actors: Anne Hathaway and James Franco, nominated for his role in 127 Hours.
The producers are putting in some 30 cameras, from the street to the dressing rooms and everywhere in between, so young geeks can follow every swear-word and nose-pick behind the scenery.
With their laptops they will be able to jump from camera to camera - and totally destroy any celebrity’s privacy.
Naturally there is an Oscars iPhone app, and no doubt all the participants, and audience, will furiously twitter like a forest of nesting sparrows at sunset.
The problem in Australia is that all this activity happens during our daytime, but we still get 700,000 viewers in the day and another 800,000 at night. Mitchells estimate the spots at $25,000. But nothing like the $1.7 million in the States.
If you want the real Oscar suspense you’ll have to sneak looks at it on your computer, when the boss is out of the office.
ray@ebeatty.com
