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The Greatest Movie Ever Sold(2011)

Ive never seen Super Size Me,Morgan Spurlocks documentary about how lethal

McDonalds food is for you; like everyone, Ive heard about it, but I guesssubconsciously I dont want to know that the place down the street (in my caseliterally) is (hopefully inadvertently) trying to kill me. Besides, I like theirhamburgers, even if each one is shaving days off my life. I had no such qualmswhen it came to advertising, however, one of the ubiquitous pernicious evils of ourage, and this movie looked very interesting: what if Morgan were to expose whatkind of dealmaking goes on with product placement in most films by doing adocumentary about nothing except marketing?

The idea is that the movie is all about the making of the film. Morgan attempts toraise 1.5 million dollars solely through product placement; he calls variousmanufacturers and talks to people he knows who are marketing and brand experts(when did brand become a good word?) to get their advice on whom to pitch to.Automobiles and soft drinks are brought up, but most of the major players, unlikeme, have seen Super Size Me, and are wary of getting involved with Morgan (onephone call with VW is shown, where the company is doing everything it can not tobe associated with him). He begins to ratchet down his expectations and startstalking to smaller brands, like gas station/convenience store Sheetz, Pom

Wonderful pomegranate juice, jetBlue, and so on he is advised to try and findbrands that are similar to his playful, irreverent style, and this advice seems towork.

Morgan shows us the meetings that lead to fruition, and a few that dont (a pitch

for a commercial for Pom falls flat on its face), but hes less interested in dissingthose who wont support him (though he does take a stab at VW later) than he issupporting those who do and explaining how and why this works. One of therequirements in his contract with Pom is that he may not be shown in the filmdrinking any other beverage, and indeed all other beverages are blurred out. WithSheetz, he must hold at least three interviews in a Sheetz dine-in location, and soon. Morgan deftly, humorously reveals the demands that sponsors can put on thecreative process (displaying a few egregious examples from prime time, adiscussion about Dr. Pepper on I believe the new 90210, and a shining example,unfortunately, from Chuck, which whored itself out for media sponsorship toSubwayand was frankly a lot less than subtle about it). The obvious point here is

that product placement holds a great deal of sway in movies and TV, and theyrenot very up-front about that the way Morgan is trying to be.

Morgan himself is highly enjoyable, and his humor and humanity make this wadinginto the marketing pool a lot more palatable than it might be otherwise. Henarrates and speaks with the adage a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine godown firmly in mind, and he manages to walk the line between having fun with theprocess and turning himself into a walking parody (his disappointment and slight

frustration with Pom after they shoot down his ad pitches is a terrific inclusion; he

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cant verbally attack his biggest sponsor, but clearly he is unhappy with theirreactions). He also manages to bring transparency to the process, showing you howthe sponsorship works, and the demands they can place on the finish product. Itsan entertaining and enlightening look at how Hollywood has sold out to those whoare willing to wave cash in its face, and its certainly worth a look.

September 6, 2011