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In keeping with the its unofficial nickname, ABC is charging Gay Super Bowl prices for a 30-second commercial on this year's Oscar telecast not quite the network's personal best of $2.6 million per spot for the actual Super Bowl, but a pretty penny nonetheless for a ceremony honoring five movies that have barely come close to grossing $100 million:

ABC will continue to get a strong showing from advertisers for its 48 spots within the telecast, which begins at 8 p.m. ET. Sources said the network will receive an average of $1.7 million per 30-second spot, up from about $1.6 million in 2005 s telecast.


In a list of advertisers released Thursday, a couple are new to the Oscars: Coca-Cola Co. and the Miller Brewing Co. The majority are returning to the telecast. [...]

Despite some carping about the quality of this year s Oscar nominees, that has little to do with who advertises during the telecast. Most of the spots were locked up long before the finalists were announced, ABC reported.

We imagine there might be some grumbling going on down at Coke HQ over plunking down millions in the expectation of a neat cross-promotional opportunity wherein their CGI polar bear mascots offer King Kong a bottle of fizzy friendship, only to have the blockbuster shut out of all the main categories. Instead, their ad men were sent scrambling back to the drawing board, devising a series of overreaching spots involving a consort of globe-trotting Israeli "thirst" agents, who "assassinate" their targets with "refreshment."