The Oscars draw a plethora of sponsors, from luxury goods and cruise lines to fashion and tech products, with Disney Advertising selling out its full inventory at $1.7 million to $2.3 million for 30 seconds. The awards fest is often the highest-rated entertainment show of the year on linear television, streaming for the first time in 2025 on Hulu, Fubo, and AT&T TV.
With its 19.5 million viewers in 2024—per the Barbenheimer bump—the broadcast doesn’t reach lofty Super Bowl heights in sheer numbers, but it’s still a significant cultural milestone. Some marketers re-run Big Game ads, while others use the platform to debut new work, underscoring a still-crucial role of water-cooler TV.
Getting real
Amid the female-targeted ads on Oscars night, the tenor of the messages is evolving. Case in point: Poise’s comedic take on bodily oopsies, which also featured a print ad in The Hollywood Reporter with the tagline, “Think of it as wardrobe malfunction insurance.”
That kind of pull-no-punches tone may signal a coming trend of other brands offering an unvarnished view of hot button issues like ambition, aging, stress, and societal expectations in ads featuring and targeting women.
A recent example: the Nike “So Win” spot from Super Bowl 59, one of ADWEEK’s favorites of the day, which could be less an outlier and more a bellwether, even during Hollywood’s most vaunted soiree.
“It’s been so refreshing to see formerly taboo topics around sexual wellness and menopause treated in a destigmatized way,” Liz Aviles, senior vice-president of strategy and cultural insights at agency Amp, said. “Brands’ perspectives are starting to align with what we’re seeing culturally around a healthier, more honest conversation around women in general and older women especially.”