#OscarsFail
Admittedly the UK isn’t that crazy about the Oscars. Granted there will be those that watch the entrance to see whose wearing what, in years past I have done the same. But this year I was totally oblivious to the Oscars, until 6am this morning when I checked Twitter to see the #OscarsFail memes and gifs hijacking my newsfeed.
La la Land was wrongfully announced as the winner of best picture and the whole cast, supporting cast and their families entered the stage to give their acceptance speech. Only to realise it wasn’t their Oscar, it was Moonlight’s! Fail.
It’s a devastating blow for all involved and a historical fail, but would the Oscars of been as successful without this “PR Disaster”?
Let’s rewind to the Oscars 2016. Everyone and his dog was rooting for Leonardo DiCaprio to win an Oscar. I myself shared memes and tweets surrounding the topic. In fact, last year I tried to stay awake just to see if Leo won an award so I could tweet about it. My plan failed and I fell asleep before the first award was announced but when I woke the next day the internet was on fire! He’d won, of course he’d won he had to! That was the only hype around the Oscars that year.
Twitter thrives from these moments, it’s what keeps it going. We have previously created a video asking ‘Will Twitter Fail’ and its main selling point is that it’s now the first place you go to seek immediate news coverage and hilarious memes.
As soon as the Oscars Announcement Fail happened the internet was quick to create memes and one liners. People, like myself, around the world will stay awake until silly o’clock to catch a glimpse of an epic fail at a major event. Like the poor house that took a tumble off stage last week during Katy Perry’s performed, arguably the only memorable thing from that night. Or in 2016 when Madonna was catapulted from the stage after a being catch in the horns of her dancers. The irony. No one’s sure of the event but you remember that moment. Twitter remembers that moment too!
This year Jimmy Kimmel tried to take the record for most retweeted Oscars Tweet. You may remember back in 2014 (yes 2014) Ellen DeGeneres’ took that famous Oscar selfie which was retweeted 3.2 million times. As of 9am this morning Kimmel’s tweet has received 232k retweets and stands as his most popular tweet ever! It only consists of 3 words and a Twitter Handle.
Twitter was made for these events and companies and PR firms go out of their way to ensure they make full use of this platform during such big events. Vanity Fair live streamed the red-carpet interviews throughout the night. Snapchat had an Oscars feature section. Instagram, as always had a supporting hashtag full of glamourous dresses, suits and jewellery.
Despite all this I probably would have missed most of the evenings coverage if it wasn’t for the mix up with the awards. Events need an element of failure to make an impact online. At least now Steve Harvey isn’t alone. In fact, the official Miss Universe account tweeted the Oscars offering support stated ‘We know what to do’
What really made the Oscars this year, the ceremony or the thousands of tweets that went with it?
