Excessive politicking, marketing, and advertising could have a boomerang effect, as John Wayne's patriotic campaign for The Alamo showed, in 1960. One ad compared the Alamo's fighters with contemporary politicians, stating: "There were no ghostwriters at the Alamo, only men." The publicity cashed in on the fact that 1960 was an election year. The Alamo was released in July, four months before the presidential elections. "Remember the Alamo," said Wayne on?screen as Davy Crockett, and offscreen as a political figure. Another full?page ad read: "What will Oscar say this year to the world?" with a picture of the Alamo's battered fortress.

Before Jane Fonda won her first Best Actress Oscar, at her second nomination, for “Klute” in 1971, she used to say: “I don’t care about the Oscars. I make movies to support the causes I believe in, not for any honors.”

John Wayne was another cynical actor, who deprecated the value of winning the Oscar–before he won. Asked how he felt about the possibility of winning, he would say, “You can’t eat awards. Nor, more to the point, drink them.”

First-time nominee, Sean (Bond 007) Connery, who won the 1986 Supporting Actor Oscar for “The Untouchables,” began his acceptance speech by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, friends, and a few enemies.”