Spam canned meat sales

That the Academy Awards and Spam sales should share a sad little choreography is one of those facts that make you want to sit down. One event sells itself as Hollywood's biggest night. The other sells itself as emergency protein. Both had a rough decade.

Both moved sharply in 2020 for different covid reasons. Oscar viewership collapsed to record lows because the pandemic had gutted the 2020 film slate and emptied theatres for months, while Spam sales hit their highest levels in decades as anxious Americans stockpiled shelf-stable protein during early lockdown panic-buying. One was the end of an industry's year; the other was its pantry.

So the correlation is the same year's reach into very different shelves. Hollywood lost audiences. Hormel gained them. The virus chose.