“Sometimes what’s right isn’t as important as what’s profitable.” – Trey Parker and Matt Stone (CMGT 541, 2015).
A night full of Hollywood’s elite, famous names, beautiful clothes and even more beautiful faces all celebrating the best in the industry, all celebrating a year’s worth of wonderful and captivating entertainment, all enjoying the elegance that is a Hollywood event, and all…white?
The Academy Awards, also know as the Oscars, is an annual awards ceremony that honors cinematic achievements in the film industry across various categories. On February 28th, the 88th Academy Awards will be televised live from Hollywood on ABC, the second year in the row on this station. Although in its 88th year, this year marks the second year that the awards are clouded in controversy.
That is because for the second year in a row all 20 acting nominees are all white.
The lack of diversity across minorities and women representation has not gone unnoticed by the average American, or the actors themselves for that matter. The lack of diversity in the nominations has caused the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag to begin trending for a second year in a row as well as the boycott from several prominent Hollywood names.
The purpose of this post is not to discuss the controversy itself, but to examine how this controversy might (or might not) affect the advertisers who have paid millions to promote their brands and products during the show.
By the time of the controversy, ABC has already sold almost all advertising slots for the awards show that will be watched by millions with most advertising having completed their work in September-October (James, 2016). These 30-second spots were sold for a record breaking $2.15 million per 30-seconds (Killoran, 2016).
At this time no advertisers had pulled out and many in the industry don’t believe they will. And why would they?
In fact, controversy might even make advertising during the Oscars even more attractive. As Ashwin Navin, Chief Executive of Samba TV, points out, “controversy, in general, helps TV ratings. Anything that generates interest in a program is good for ratings” (James, 2016).
In this week’s readings we learned about unethical advertising. This brings up an important ethical dilemma for the advertisers who have paid to advertise during the Oscars.
Should advertisers consider pulling their advertising? How does one balance an ethical dilemma while ensuring they are also not doing a knee-jerk reaction?
“If I were an organization who had purchased time during the Academy Awards, I would do some soul searching to see whether I had the courage to use the platform to advance justice, inclusion and equality, or would I just be contributing to the status quo? Advertisers run the risk of being labeled part of the problem — or part of the solution,” said Nicholas Pearce, clinical assistant professor of management & organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (James, 2016).
Whether advertising agencies choose to pull their ads, which they have spent the time and money to already create, or not I think it is important for them to at least have the conversation about what to do. As Pearce mentions, the advertisers risk of being labeled part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. It is an important conversation for advertisers to have. Is it possible that they can win hearts and minds by abstaining from the Oscars? Will participating damage their brand?
With just around a month to go till the Oscars, ABC’s wallet might be the only winner of the night.
References
CMGT 541. (2016). Ethics. Retrieved from https://mcm.usc.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=33944
Crupi, A. (2016, January 20). Oscars boycott not likely to shake up ABC’s bottom line. AdAge. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/media/oscars-boycott/302240/
James, M. (2016, January 21). Why the diversity controversy won’t hurt the Academy Awards’ bottom line. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-oscar-telecast-diversity-20160122-story.html
Killoran, E. (2016, January 24). #OscarsSoWhite Controversy: Can it boost ratings for the Academy Awards telecast? Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenkilloran/2016/01/24/oscarssowhite-controversy-can-it-boost-ratings-for-abcs-academy-awards-telecast/#5557f6ed30dd
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