For those of you who were watching Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony – or “Oscars” (hopefully forced against your will) already know, but for those who don’t, Kawasaki pandered to the largest audience of self-absorbed sycophants on earth – or “actors” – by offering them a brand-new 2018 Kawasaki Ultra 310LX and a trip to Lake Havasu, Arizona, for giving the evening’s shortest speech.
Hosted by the dreadfully unfunny late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, who balked, “The first Oscar ceremony lasted — and this is true — 15 minutes from beginning to end, and people still complained.” Kimmel continued by encouraging winners, saying: “Why waste precious time thanking your mom when you could be taking her for the ride of her life: on a brand new jet ski!? This is not a joke. I will be timing you. I have a stopwatch.”
And in perfect game show fashion, the “Price is Right” theme song fired up over the sound system, the curtains behind Kimmel parted, and the new JetSki was displayed, with Oscar-winner Helen Miren doing her best Vanna White impression waving her hands over the new ski. The gag played well for laughs, and certainly gave Kawasaki the eyeballs the brand has been pining for (particularly to an outside-of-the-mainstream demographic). Moreover, true to his word, Kimmel announced the winner:
The winner with the shortest victory speech went to costume designer Mark Bridges for his work on Phantom Thread, who said his (36 second-long) speech was actually supposed to be longer: “That was an accident!” Bridges told Entertainment Tonight. “I really had things to say … I forgot a sentence and now look — I got me and Helen Miren on a jet ski and now I have a jet ski.” All jabs and chides aside, the insertion of a class-leading watercraft in front of millions of people who are otherwise neophytes to PWC. Kudos to Kawasaki!
Kawasaki Motor Corp. issued a formal press release announcing the clever promotion that placed its top-of-the-line Ultra 310LX in front of over 25 million viewers on Sunday:
Foothill Ranch, Calif. – Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (KMC) helped celebrate Hollywood on Sunday night as the Academy Awards and the 90th Oscars Award show presented a Kawasaki Jet Ski® Ultra® 310LX to Oscar winner Mark Bridges for having the shortest acceptance speech of the night.
“We were honored to be approached by the Academy’s production team to act as a prize provider of a Kawasaki Jet Ski,” said Kawasaki Vice President, Marketing Chris Brull. “We were blown away with how the Jet Ski was integrated into the show by Jimmy (Kimmel) and that so many winners made mention of the Jet Ski on stage as well as on social media. This was a fantastic integration for us and we are pleased to provide a 2018 Kawasaki Jet Ski Ultra 310LX to Mark Bridges following his exciting win.”
The Jet Ski first came on stage during the show’s monologue when host Jimmy Kimmel announced it would be awarded for the shortest acceptance speech of the night. Many winners contributed to the bit, mentioning the Jet Ski in their speeches, but it was Bridges who collected the prize with a 36-second acceptance.
Kawasaki’s social media team also got in on the act through offering up posts and polls throughout the award show engaging movie fans and new customers.
