On Hollywood's Night to Shine, Red Carpet Time for Ads, Too THIS is one of those years when the public may be more familiar with the brands sponsoring the Academy Awards than the movies vying for best picture. Still, Madison Avenue is in a hooray-for-Hollywood mood, offering several reasons buying commercial time makes sense, despite an absence of huge hits among the nominees that suggests the ratings on Sunday could be lower than when blockbusters like "Avatar" or "Titanic" were contenders. In fact, one sponsor, Diet Coke, will run a spot, by Wieden & Kennedy, that uses a version of the song "Hooray for Hollywood" on the soundtrack. In the spot, which is scheduled to be shown twice, Diet Coke is celebrated as the fuel for those behind the scenes who make movies, among them scriptwriters, stunt performers and sound effects artists. "The Oscars remains one of the very few high-impact programs when people are watching live," said William White, group brand director for Diet Coke and Coke Zero at Coca-Cola North America, part of the Coca-Cola Company. "It's still appointment television," he added. We want to be there. Amplifying the impact is what is being called the second-screen phenomenon, whereby people watching live TV events are simultaneously interacting with friends and family on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. For instance, "Diet Coke will be tweeting from the show," Mr. White said, to those who follow the brand's Twitter feed. Beth Hirschhorn, chief marketing officer for another sponsor, MetLife, echoed Mr. White. "Programming like this isn't just about volume," said Ms. Hirschhorn, referring to total viewership. It's about how deeply engaged consumers are while watching. "Many viewers tune in and watch from start to finish," she added, and when that happens, "research tells us that message recall and comprehension are stronger." MetLife will run a commercial, by the MDC Partners agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, that carries the theme "MetLife. I can do this. It is part of a campaign that MetLife introduced during Super Bowl XLVI on NBC on Feb. 5 and continued during the Grammy Awards on CBS on Feb. 12. Among the other blue-chip sponsors of the 84th Academy Awards, to be broadcast by ABC, are American Express, Anheuser-Busch InBev, AT&T, Walt Disney, Hyundai Motor America, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, McDonald's, Paramount Pictures, J.C. Penney, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and Sprint. Samsung seems to believe the Oscars are so nice that it will be there twice, in the form of Samsung Electronics (Smart TV) and Samsung Telecommunications (Samsung Galaxy Note). Another reason marketers like the Academy Awards is that "it makes a statement" to advertise "in a show of that kind of stature," said Andy Goeler, vice president for imports, crafts and specialties at the Anheuser-Busch division of Anheuser-Busch InBev, which plans to run a new commercial for Stella Artois beer by the Mother agency. "Our consumer base is sophisticated," Mr. Goeler said of Stella Artois, "and a platform like the Academy Awards aligns perfectly with that audience, a sophisticated, upscale audience." Hyundai Motor America intends to devote four of the seven commercials it is to run during the show - all of them by the Innocean Worldwide Americas agency - to a luxury model, the 2012 Azera sedan, that with a sticker price of around $32,000 is aimed at the affluent viewers of the Oscars. Two Azera spots were directed by an Oscar nominee, the movie director Wes Anderson, and all seven spots are narrated by an Oscar winner, the actor Jeff Bridges. The types of people who watch the Academy Awards also make the show appealing to marketers that want to burnish their images with an audience that includes many so-called influencers, whose perceptions are important in shaping brand image. For example, of the two commercials that McDonald's will run, both by the Chicago office of DDB Worldwide, one is part of a series that salutes the farmers who supply the company with ingredients like lettuce. "Customers more and more are interested in the food they eat," said Neil Golden, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at McDonald's, and "we want to make sure we tell the story of the care and attention we take in every step" of making menu items. "The Academy Awards audience is a fabulous audience," Mr. Golden said. There is an opportunity with high-profile programming to better engage consumers with the brand. The other McDonald's commercial, which is new, offers a twist on the old game of "He loves me, he loves me not," courtesy of a couple of boxes of the chain's French fries. "The movies are about storytelling," said Marlena Peleo-Lazar, chief creative officer at McDonald's, "and the advertising we do tells a story." Social media make "our ability to engage in a conversation" about those stories easier, she added. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seeks to ensure that the atmosphere of the show will appeal to the kinds of viewers the sponsors seek. The academy limits the number of commercials and network promotions that ABC can run each hour of the show. And the academy reviews the contents of each spot for acceptability, separate from the scrutiny of the standards and practices department at ABC. As a result, the types of racy commercials that raised eyebrows during the Super Bowl, for advertisers like Go Daddy and Teleflora, are about as likely to appear during the Oscars as a little-known nominee like "The Tree of Life" is to win best picture.