• by Wayne Friedman , March 3, 2011

The most-viewed TV commercial on the Oscars came early in the show -- hoping to freshen your breath. Listerine's spot at the Academy Awards pulled in 37.7 million viewers at 9:08 p.m., when host James Franco and Anne Hathaway were still working to grab the crowd's attention, per the Nielsen Company.

JCPenney had the next-best results -- but that came almost two hours later at 10:57 p.m., pulling in 37.1 million viewers. Two other JCPenney commercials also scored well -- with the fourth-best and eighth-best results for a commercial during the Oscar event.

But not all most-watched commercials had the most recall, according to Nielsen. Mars' M&M's brand spot about a criminal threatening to eat candy hostages if demands are not met earned the highest consumer recall results, with a 222 index.

Only Hyundai and AT&T messaging earned top 10 results on both viewership and recall lists. For viewership, Hyundai grabbed third place (36.8 million) and 10th place (33.8 million). When it came to recall, a Hyundai spot featuring Sonata Hybrid -- where people were using older versions of technology -- earned a 135 recall index, good for eighth place.

AT&T came in at sixth place in viewership at 35.1 million -- running late into the evening with an 11:08 p.m. placement, with its commercial of a man who forgets his anniversary and makes a reservation on his phone. This earned the second-best recall results, with a 217 recall index.

Other notables included one for Best Buy's Buy Back Program, featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber touting 4G, "5G" and "6G" phones. Nielsen says this was the strongest celebrity ad in terms of brand recall. It came in at fourth place for brand recall, with a 191 index.

Gillette's female razor product, Venus, had Jennifer Lopez singing, dancing and chasing her children on the beach. That came in at fifth place with a 180 index. The American Cancer Society ad featuring Celine Dion singing "Happy Birthday" was the sixth-best recalled spot, at a 142 number. Adrien Brody also did some lounge lizard singing in a Stella Artois ad, where he left women swooning. His ad came in at seventh place and scored a 141 index.