Is Oscar Marketing Too ‘Mean’ this Year?

Published February 12, 2014 at 9:12 am

Every year as we near closer to Oscar awards season, there’s a competition that goes on behind the scenes to promote the various films being considered. This happens relatively removed from the public eye but it represents the heated investment of resources that goes into swaying the Academy. And according to the New York Post, it’s getting progressively uglier.

That paper recently quoted Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke over the antagonistic tactics on display here. The way she says it, the dirty deeds go down for all the major competitors.

“Every studio gets down and dirty with this stuff,” she said. “I’d like to think that Harvey Weinstein’s unseen hand is behind it, but everybody is behind it.”

That last comment is in reference to the famous Weinstein Company founder who has become somewhat famous for aggressively chasing after Oscars for each of his nominated films.

According to a piece on Vulture, this has included sending phone and mail solicitations, masterminding public appearances for directors, and fudging the truth in order to generate buzz about Jennifer Lawrence’s upcoming projects. And there has also allegedly been tons of put downs of the competition, including some not-so-indirect accusations.

While some of this may simply be a show business tradition at this point, it raises the question of exactly how vocal you should be when attacking the rivals in your industry. Over time, things could get rough for both the parties involved and all spectators if businesses aren’t careful in choosing their words and images. There’s nothing wrong with a little competition, but some ads might cross the line before you know it.