Academy Awards To Allow Movie Ads During Ceremony

In a reversal of a 55-year-old ruling, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will allow ads for upcoming films to be shown during the actual Oscar telecast for the first time since 1953. The ruling back then was an effort to firmly establish that money from studio sponsors would have no influence on the awards, but apparently that’s an antiquated notion now, in the age of Crash, and they’ve decided to stop trying to fool people. The rules now are that the films advertised cannot be released before April (making it a good time for summer blockbuster event movie revelations), and they cannot be sequels/prequels to films in award contention.

Do you think that’s a fair deal? On one hand, it could be award-buying. On the other hand, it’s a giant celebration of movies, so it should have ads for movies as well.