Disney paid its subsidiary ABC $10 million for The Little Mermaid trailer slot
Walt Disney Co. ended up paying itself to take the stage at the ABC-aired Oscar ceremony
Aux News ABC
This year’s Academy Awards contained not one but two corporate placement ads from the biggest companies in Hollywood: Disney and Warner Bros. While the latter’s felt less out of place in the celebratory event on film, Disney’s The Little Mermaid trailer spotlight pulled many Oscar attendees and viewers out of the moment as corporate pandering took the stage.
The stars of the upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid Melissa McCarthy and Halle Bailey introduced the trailer about halfway through the ceremony. Per a report from Indiewire, the two-minute and twenty-second trailer cost Disney upwards of $10 million. However, this all seems kind of moot when you realize Walt Disney Co. owns the event’s broadcaster, ABC; however, insiders tell IndieWire “actual money actually changed hands” as the two companies are treated like “church and state.”
The ad integration will probably work to The Little Mermaid’s benefit in the long run, as the trailer finally showed off a more whimsical and colorful side of the film not yet seen amongst the previously shared low-lit preview images and posters.
Disney did get its money’s worth as the Oscars saw improved ratings from last year, with 18.7 million viewers tuned in. Still, it’s a big chunk of money considering 30-second ads for the telecast went between $1.6 million and $2.1 million. But when you’re Disney, $10 million probably feels like chump change—especially when the money just ends up at another Disney-owned property.
The Warner Bros. ad aired with less fanfare with an introduction from Margot Robbie and Morgan Freeman, but it gave the company an opportunity to flex the legendary films in their repertoire, including Wizard Of Oz, Singing In The Rain, North By Northwest, The Matrix, Lord Of The Rings, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Notebook, Risky Business, The Shining, The Gremlins, and many more in celebration of the production studios 100th anniversary. At 90 seconds, the ad cost Warner Bros. anywhere from $3-7 million.
Sponsored integration has become a regular component of the Academy Awards ad revenue, as the last three ceremonies have featured ad placements of the sort. The ABC’s ad-sales team pitched a sponsored placement to every major studio, but only Warner Bros. and Disney took them up on the offer. As the strategy continues to pay off for ABC, it’s likely this is not the end of ads within an already advertised event.
10 Comments
“as the two companies are treated like “church and state.””
No fucking shit.I mean, is there a toddler around somewhere who needed this explained to them?
I’m sure they made that back after ten people went on the teacups ride.
Nope, the WB slot was tacky as well. Of all the things they wring their hands over changing in the Oscars, the ads (commercial breaks and the new integrated commercial slots) are what bog things down. Raise the cost of a commercial spot, decrease the number of breaks, and you could cut a whole hour out of the broadcast.
Y’know what, this explains a lot, thank you. ABC airing a Disney trailer made sense because, y’know, same company, but I was genuinely wondering why WB got a look-how-awesome-we-are montage (and why Disney didn’t get one of their own, given it’s their 100th anniversary too). Knowing that it was paid ad space makes it make sense.
the two-minute and twenty-second trailer And yet they couldn’t fit Paul Sorvino (and others) in the “In Memoriam” segment
It is less of fitting him in and more of $. With limited time, and thus limited space, to get in the segment, you have to pay to get in. At least this is how it was a few years ago, maybe it has changed. If it was a true in memoriam it would run the entire length of the oscar broadcast. Even the SAG Awards In memorial segment was longer, and that only accounts for on small aspect of the industry.
The appearance of the Little Mermaid infomercial was obnoxious but did have the welcome benefit of making Tucker Carlson lose his partial erection so I’ll let it slide.
100 of both Disney and WB should have been a bigger thing in the broadcast. There are at this point the only real big 2 left. The Academy should have put together their own montage packages for the studios, and they should have been at least both 5 min segments in the broadcast. This is all the more odd when you look at the add for the Academy museum. The Academy wants to celebrate not only its own history but that of the industry. They should have made a much larger deal out of it. How they handled these two 100 milestones, makes me have serious concerns for the 100th Academy Awards coming up in 5 years. That broadcast had better be at minimum 6 hours long.
I preordered tickets for the whole family to prove to everyone how not racist we are, even though we don’t know any black people. Maybe we’ll meet one at the movie theater!
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