Stuart Elliott: And the Winner Is ... Academy Award Ads

As the 89th annual Academy Awards was concluding, advertisers in the telecast seemed to be in a good place. There'd been an entertaining mix of jokes, songs and political remarks. Jimmy Kimmel was deftly handling his first Oscars hosting gig. Without elaborate, irrelevant production numbers, the show was moving along. And honors in 10 major categories had gone to the expected winners, so perhaps viewers were paying more attention to the commercials than usual.