Disney Had to Shell Out Embarrassing Amount of Money to Promote Little Mermaid at Oscars
Disney has lost all shame, and the fans are not sure it's still funny anymore.
In this year's Oscars, right in the middle of the ceremony, they played a trailer of Little Mermaid.
In case you haven't quite caught it the first time, let's break it down a bit.
A colossal megacorporation used the global movie award ceremony which is considered the most important in the world to promote their upcoming live-action cartoon remake. They basically inserted an ad in the middle of the Oscars!
Fans were quick to note that this is both shameless and shameful at the same time — but, what's most important, absolutely unheard of.
Disney had to pay quite a hefty sum for the showtime, too: $10M, no less. Seems like some fair capitalism right until you realize that the ABC network — the guys that air the Oscars — belongs to Disney.
This is when you really start questioning reality.
Disney bought a largely expensive ad time to promote their new movie from their own network, interrupting the ceremony that's borderline sacred for the film industry. And at first, it seems that the money didn't even change hands.
This was disproven: according to IndieWire's sources, ABC still has a separate treasury from the rest of Disney's kingdom, so the money didn't end up exactly where it previously was.
That's already something — at least it was not money laundering, as some fans initially thought.
But the fact that Disney went for such a blatant ad still stands — and the embarrassingly large amount of money they paid for it doesn't sweeten the deal for those who consider the ceremony desecrated.