Oscar Ad Bucks--Easy as ABC

The Best Picture Oscar is still up for grabs, but ABC is already the big winner.

Sunday's 78th Academy Awards stand to garner the Alphabet nearly $82 million this year. Each of the 48 commercial spots for the three-hour telecast has been sold, at an average of $1.7 million per 30-second commercial, up 6 percent from last year, ABC announced last week. More than half of Oscar advertisers are launching new campaigns.

The ceremony is traditionally second only to the Super Bowl as a revenue-earner each year, which is a boon to ABC--the network also had dibs on the football game last month.

Although ratings for Hollywood's biggest night dropped around 5 percent from 2004 to 2005--to 41.5 million viewers--and none of the Best Picture nominees has passed the $100 million mark at the box office, advertisers say they're not concerned about a lack of viewers this weekend.

"You can never predict ratings," Alison Lewis, senior vice president for integrated marketing at Coca-Cola North America, told the New York Times. "It's more about the association with these marquee entertainment events." Coca-Cola is sponsoring both the Oscar preshow and the ceremony this year and will run seven spots to hammer home that association.

So, even while Crash and Capote are not raking in Titanic's dollar figures, the telecast remains in the upper echelons of advertising dollars, relying on the idea that star-struck consumers are happy consumers. The Super Bowl may have the distinction of being the only broadcast people record to their TiVos solely for the commercials, but even the annual pigskin extravaganza had ad spots left to sell 48 hours before kickoff. What is the X-factor Oscar brings to the table--aside from host Jon Stewart's inevitable Brokeback Mountain jokes?

"It's a status event," Geri Wang, senior vice president of prime-time ad sales at ABC, told USA Today. "People love to be a part of the glamour and pomp and circumstance, and they know who else is watching."

For one thing, women are watching. The Super Bowl, with its $2.5 million ads, may be a manly tradition, but Oscar night is ladies night. The audience is nearly 60 percent female and 60 percent of viewers are married, according to AdAge.com. That means much of the night's commercial lineup will have an estrogen vibe.

Cosmetics giant L'Oréal is rolling out eight spots (up from five last year) throughout the preshow and ceremony, several of which introduce new product lines and feature very recognizable lovelies like Beyoncé Knowles, Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson.

The only thing you might see more of than diamonds and cleavage on Oscar night could be Coca-Cola's wares. The beverage purveyor will run three minutes and 45 seconds of ads, including new spots for Dasani, Diet Coke and two for new products, the hybrid Coca-Cola Blâk and Tab Energy--a throwback to the '70s-era cola identifiable by its hot pink can. Getting into the red carpet spirit, the 15-second spot for Coca-Cola Blâk, a new Coke and coffee fusion, will feature a bottle done up in a strappy dress, surrounded by paparazzi. Diet Coke ads will promote a "star treatment" sweepstakes, where you're just a cap twist away from a shiny new Escalade or diamond jewelry.

While the female demo is favored by advertisers, more gender-neutral fare can be expected from McDonald's, M&M's, J.C. Penney and General Motors. This is the automaker's 17th consecutive year of advertising during the telecast. The Careerbuilder.com chimps from the Super Bowl are back, and although longtime advertiser Anheuser-Busch is out of the picture, there will be beer.

Classy beer.

Miller Genuine Draft is making its first Oscar appearance with an ad featuring men who are giving up their plastic beer-drinking hats and straws for bottles of MGD. "This is about beer grown-up," Miller Brewing spokesman Peter Marino told USA Today. "This is about tapping into mainstream sophistication, and that will resonate equally with men and women." MGD's theme for its three Oscar-night ads: "Beer. Grow Up."

Finally, try not to be in the bathroom or refilling the dip bowl when the two-minute American Express ad directed by M. Night Shyamalan premieres. You wouldn't want to miss the twist.