Pfiz­er, No­var­tis and Eli Lil­ly among phar­mas hit­ting the red car­pet with Acad­e­my Award TV ads

And the Acad­e­my Award goes to … phar­ma?

Maybe a bit of a stretch, but Sun­day night’s Hol­ly­wood awards broad­cast in­clud­ed an un­ex­pect­ed five TV ads from phar­ma in­dus­try com­pa­nies – Pfiz­er, which was al­so a lead­ing spon­sor of the awards show, No­var­tis, Eli Lil­ly, In­cyte and Ex­act Sci­ences.

It’s an un­usu­al turn for the in­dus­try – the Acad­e­my Awards are pricey me­dia place­ments and the celebri­ty dress-to-im­press fest tends to draw more lifestyle brands than health­care re­minders. Still, the Os­cars, along with mega-sports events like the Su­per Bowl and the Olympics, are re­main­ing rare op­por­tu­ni­ties in to­day’s me­dia-frag­ment­ed world to reach a prime­time mass au­di­ence. Cost for a 30-sec­ond spot this year ranged from $1.7 mil­lion to $2.2 mil­lion and Dis­ney’s ABC sold out all 60 spots by last week, ac­cord­ing to a Va­ri­ety re­port.

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