POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a documentary (and an attempt at creating the first “docbuster”) about marketing and product placement funded entirely by marketing and product placement. The film follows director Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) as he attempts to make the film by pitching corporations on sponsoring the film all the way through promoting and releasing the movie — the movie the audience is watching. Forget the Scream movies: This is meta.
The Spurlock “brand” will probably forever be tied to Super Size Me. For most people, the horseshoe-mustachioed filmmaker may never be anything more than the slightly goofy guy who ate at McDonald’s for a month. But those who kept up with Spurlock over the past six years know he’s gone on to do interesting work that shows an intelligence and heart that promises many more exciting experiments to come. Most notable of these projects was 30 Days, the wonderful, woefully defunct FX series born from the Super Size Me concept of trying something for a month. (If you’re unfamiliar or never got around to watching it, get on it.)
Read more after the jump!
The Spurlock “brand” will probably forever be tied to Super Size Me. For most people, the horseshoe-mustachioed filmmaker may never be anything more than the slightly goofy guy who ate at McDonald’s for a month. But those who kept up with Spurlock over the past six years know he’s gone on to do interesting work that shows an intelligence and heart that promises many more exciting experiments to come. Most notable of these projects was 30 Days, the wonderful, woefully defunct FX series born from the Super Size Me concept of trying something for a month. (If you’re unfamiliar or never got around to watching it, get on it.)
Read more after the jump!
With PWP:TGMES, Spurlock attempts to pull back the curtain on the shadowy figures responsible for making sure Tony Stark drives a ferocious-looking Audi in Iron Man and details how cross promotion drives box office dollars while selling everything from Whoppers to cruise ship vacations. And, as weird as it sounds, it works.
The movie certainly feels transparent — negotiations, costs and discussions of concerns about partnering with a figure as potentially controversial as Spurlock are all shared with the audience. But more importantly, the movie never goes the easy route of painting the ad men, be they the film’s benefactors or those politely declining Spurlock’s offer, as villains. These marketers and CEOs aren’t sociopaths hatching insidious plans to deceive children into eating AIDS-covered razor blades sold as sugary cereal; these people want impressions for their brands, and they’re willing to pay to be associated with “cool” — if you were hocking pricey pomegranate juice you’d probably want the same. PWP:TGMES even presents fair arguments for product placement (e.g., If a film’s protagonist has to drive a car, why not have it be a Mini Cooper?)
With this more objective approach, Spurlock also avoids getting preachy, one of the biggest annoyances for me in his previous projects. Spurlock speaks to a variety of industry insiders and asks questions of a wide range of folks, including Big Boi, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky and Quentin Tarantino, who talks of his love of Denny’s and how he tried to work out a deal with the diner to be featured in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction — Denny’s declined. We also visit a city where outdoor advertising has been outlawed and see how science is enabling ads to appeal to your subconscious mind.
PWP:TGMES won’t be a huge revelation to anyone who isn’t completely oblivious to the fact that they’re constantly being pitched to, but there are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments here; this is possibly the funniest work Spurlock has ever done. Rather than telling us what to think, PWP:TGMES reminds us to think. It’s a reminder that good or bad, advertising is all around us. And sometimes it really works: I’ve been craving a POM since I left the damn theater.
--Eric Pulsifer
The movie certainly feels transparent — negotiations, costs and discussions of concerns about partnering with a figure as potentially controversial as Spurlock are all shared with the audience. But more importantly, the movie never goes the easy route of painting the ad men, be they the film’s benefactors or those politely declining Spurlock’s offer, as villains. These marketers and CEOs aren’t sociopaths hatching insidious plans to deceive children into eating AIDS-covered razor blades sold as sugary cereal; these people want impressions for their brands, and they’re willing to pay to be associated with “cool” — if you were hocking pricey pomegranate juice you’d probably want the same. PWP:TGMES even presents fair arguments for product placement (e.g., If a film’s protagonist has to drive a car, why not have it be a Mini Cooper?)
With this more objective approach, Spurlock also avoids getting preachy, one of the biggest annoyances for me in his previous projects. Spurlock speaks to a variety of industry insiders and asks questions of a wide range of folks, including Big Boi, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky and Quentin Tarantino, who talks of his love of Denny’s and how he tried to work out a deal with the diner to be featured in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction — Denny’s declined. We also visit a city where outdoor advertising has been outlawed and see how science is enabling ads to appeal to your subconscious mind.
PWP:TGMES won’t be a huge revelation to anyone who isn’t completely oblivious to the fact that they’re constantly being pitched to, but there are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments here; this is possibly the funniest work Spurlock has ever done. Rather than telling us what to think, PWP:TGMES reminds us to think. It’s a reminder that good or bad, advertising is all around us. And sometimes it really works: I’ve been craving a POM since I left the damn theater.
--Eric Pulsifer
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