It’s the movie industry’s biggest social event of the year: the Oscars. Movie stars line the red carpet in some of the most unique and glamorous outfits money can buy. The 89th celebration, lasting nearly four hours, was going smoothly until it came time to announce Best Picture, when presenters gave the Oscar to “La La Land”, when, to the Academy’s horror, the winner was actually “Moonlight.”
Viewers debated if the presenters were in a la la land of their own, confused about how such a major mishap could occur.
The two presenters, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, were apparently handed the wrong card backstage. Beatty opened the card, read it and paused for a moment, seeming confused. He then handed the card to Dunaway who announced “La La Land” as the winner. It wasn’t until after the cast and producers were on stage accepting that they corrected the mistake, announcing “Moonlight” as the actual winner.
Immediately this mistake took social media by storm. Twitter began to blow up with posts comparing this mistake to Steve Harvey’s last year when he announced the wrong Miss Universe winner. In light of the joke, Miss Universe tweeted “Have your people call our people – we know what to do #Oscars #MissUniverse”. Following this, Steve Harvey even tweeted “Call me Warren Beatty. I can help you get through this! #Oscars”. Users continued to caption meme’s relating to Steve Harvey.
https://twitter.com/ChloeHughes92/status/836154438024904704
Other posts compared the mistake to the 2016 election, including tweets “wishing this is what happened with the election.” Users turned the jokes political by bringing up the popular vote issue from the election.
https://twitter.com/FinalFacts/status/836227170162855936
PwC, the accounting and consulting firm that handles the ballot counting process for the Academy Awards, took more than two minutes to take action to correct their mistake during the show.
According to ABC News, PwC had no other option but to be up-front and explain what happened to minimize damage to their reputation and brand. The company tweeted a statement apologizing to Beatty, Dunaway, all of “La La Land” and “Moonlight” several hours after the show ended.
Do you think the company took enough action for damage control? Or should they have stepped up more? Time will tell, but, in my opinion, I think the company could have provided more than a tweet to apologize to viewers and the people affected on-stage. Possibly by apologizing for the mistake themselves while it was happening on live T.V. would have served them better and appealed to viewers emotions better.
The Academy has since released a statement, apologizing to the cast and crew of both movies. The Academy shared the statement on its website and social media.
Flash Communications 