For Your Consideration: Marketing The Movies At Oscar Time

For Your Consideration: Marketing The Movies At Oscar Time see also Motion Pictures
Copyright 2009 Frank W. Baker (scroll down to see some current ads for nominated films below)

See list of Oscar winners for 2008
      list of Screen Actors Guild award winners
      list of 2009 Golden Globe Award winners



Each year, the major movie studios, and to a lesser extent their affiliated television studios and the television networks,
spend large sums of money on "For Your Consideration" ads extolling the alleged virtues of their films or programs released
over the previous year. While it is unclear where or when the practice originated, it appears to have been popularized by
Miramax, which rose from relative obscurity during the 1990s to become one of the most prestigious studios, at least of
that decade.

Not surprisingly, then, the quantity of such ads has increased dramatically, as major firms vie to win the top awards, hoping
that the associated publicity will result in more viewers and greater revenues. Indeed, most of the films expected to be
"Oscar-worthy" are released in the last few months of the year, occasionally opening in limited release just before the end
of the year and opening wide in January. This generally ensures that these films are still in movie theatres as awards-related
publicity peaks....

As might be expected, these ads have recently begun appearing online at websites popular with voting members of the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Movie buffs are now archiving and tagging these online Oscar ads so they'll be
available for future study and commentary. Source (note: links in the above were added by media educator Frank Baker)

Ads (posted below) are designed for advertising analysis and deconstruction.

Movie posters are a prime example of visual communication. Movie posters, as well as the promos, have to be visually appealing
otherwise they aren't going to sell any tickets. Posters have to use an image to get the gist of an entire two hour movie. (Source)

For Your Consideration is a heading frequently used in advertisements in entertainment trade publications
such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. They are specifically directed towards members of groups in the entertainment industry, most commonly the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which annually presents the Academy Awards celebrating the best in motion pictures, (or the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,
which awards the Golden Globes) or the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences which presents the Primetime Emmy Awards for television.

Useful links:
Checklist of analyzing print ads     Deconstructing print ads                 Movie marketing blog
Checklist for reading any ad           Analyzing ads (& commercials)     Marketing Movies (book/website)
Advertising 101 (critique sheet)   ANALYZING MEDIA: Movie Posters    Ad-wise, the Oscars in this digital age
ABC Made $72 Million on 26 Minutes of Oscar Ads

Questions for students to consider:
- what does the phrase "for your consideration" mean?
- who is the audience for these ads and what are they asked to do?
- in what ways are these ads "persuasive"?
- what information is quintessential in ads promoting films?
- what codes/conventions/techniques does each contain?
- what effect, if any, do film critic quotes play?
- what is the same; what is different about each ad?
- why are some ads featured on the cover of a magazine?
- who designs the ads; who pays for them?
- consider the layout of the ad: what attracts attention most?
- how is mood and/or genre communicated?
- how might expression, body language or other non-verbal language
communicate what is happening?

See this website for a full list of films (including foreign films) and ads

Ad below from New York Times (January 22, 2009)