And the Oscar goes to...

Still deep in the award show season, I ofcourse had to watch the 79th Academy Awards on ABC last night. And yes, I did say last night. No DVR action this time. However, I must admit I don't have the greatest attention span, which probably explains my love for DVR and the power to fast-forward. So although I did watch the Oscars live, I can't say that I watch the whole 3 hour plus program start to finish. But in the select periods that I did tune in I was able to spot a few instances of product placement.

During the pre-show, "The Road to the Oscars 2007," there were plenty of shameless upcoming movie plugs and designer label publicity. Ofcourse, all of the A-list celebrities walking the Red Carpet were stopped by E! personalities and did the usual name-dropping. The typical "Who are you wearing?" question was answered with Calvin Klein, Versace, Vera Wang, etc. Matchbox Cars were also credited for being Leo DiCaprio's first commercial opportunity. Hundreds of other companies and films associated with the attending celebs were also mentioned over and over, aside from the nominated films.

The actual show, however, was pretty standard. I waited and waited to spot just one glimpse of an Aquafina water bottle or a pair of Nike shoes, but no such luck. But around 10:15pm I hit the placement jackpot when host Ellen Degeneres entered the audience and struck up a conversation with actor Clint Eastwood. In the comedic clip, Ellen asked Director Steven Spielberg to take a picture of her and Clint for her MySpace page with... dun dun dun... a Sony Powershot digital camera. Like hitting two with one stone. A few moments later, actress Gwyneth Paltrow graced the stage to present the award for "Best Cinemotography" in which she credited "YouTube" as making it possible for almost anyone to be a cinematographer these days. Aside from these satisfying few moments during the show I didn't note any more product placement. But there was probably about an hour of content that I missed, so I'm certainly not the end-all-say-all, which is fine with me. That 10 minute occurrence was enough to last me through the rest of the award season, but we're not done yet so stay tuned...