In Morgan Spurlock’s past films there were set objectives that the film worked towards, whereas in Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, the creation of the film was the entire point. We join him at the outset as he attempts to raise funding through sponsorships to make a film about product placement in films. Spurlock goes from one sponsor to the next looking for any company willing to put down some cash in exchange for face time in the film – and he succeeds to that end, but what kind of film comes out of it?
A funny one, for starters. The fact that we’re seeing a film says that Spurlock got the necessary sponsorships to make it – and consequently what he puts into the film beyond him pitching the idea to various companies is entirely up for grabs. That’s where the comedy comes in. The selection of footage from pitch sessions to NY marketing firms and the companies that will ultimately sponsor the film offers plenty of laughs as executives wrap their brains around a film whose entire purpose is the exposure of what has become the lifeblood of American media: product placement. Once the film has established the sponsors, how much they’re paying, their expectations for the film, and the basic purpose of the film, Spurlock moves on to film directors, musicians, and brand specialists, the next cog in the machine.
Chatting up the likes of Peter Berg, J.J. Abrams, Quentin Tarantino, and Brett Ratner, Spurlock questions them on how they handle studio expectations when it comes to integrating corporate sponsorships. Not surprisingly most of them fight an ongoing battle to preserve artistic integrity in the face of desires to offset costs by having the protagonist sit in a Taco Bell in exchange for a lump of cash - though in some cases, like with Tarantino, it sometimes goes the other direction, with Denny's denying him the right to film in their franchises. Then you have Ratner who comes right out and admits, almost refreshingly, that sometimes integrity has to take a hit when you’re making a huge blockbuster; after all, what place does artistry have in a business transaction? It’s an important question, and one that Spurlock tackles from different angles even after fielding his contemporaries’ takes.
In creating a film funded from every side by sponsorship money, Spurlock had to accept a certain degree of input from his sponsors in how they were portrayed, what would be included in the film, and certain things he couldn’t do or say. In a rather amusing piece he reads through some of the genuinely strange restrictions and requests made of him, the oddest of which is the caveat that he “not disparage Germany”. That sponsor can rest easy.
As the film starts with the inclusion of a commercial entity in a highly commercialized business, Spurlock offers two counterpoints to show us that product placement has infiltrated our lives in two ways that it doesn’t have to and shouldn’t. Taking us to Sao Paolo, Brazil, Morgan gives a brief glimpse at the metropolis that has banned any and all outdoor advertising. No billboards. Nothing. If the buildings haven’t been painted with colorful murals, they stand bare. It may seem drab to some, but contrast it against the dizzying array of overstimulation in Times Square, and you’ll begin to think that maybe Sao Paolo is on the forefront of a very good idea. And that’s all Morgan sought to do with that brief segment: show us that it’s possible, that the economy doesn’t breakdown when you strip away publicly displayed ads.
Then he shows us what happens when advertising goes a little too far. Inside a public school, we see how the television station Channel 1, which broadcasts into the homerooms of schools around the nation, has opened the door wide for advertising in an educational institution. Spurlock takes the issue a little further by negotiating with a school in need of money to put up a poster along their perimeter fence (one already plastered with ads for local dentists and lawyers). It’s an approach to fundraising the school board is more than willing to embrace in light of severe budget cutbacks and it begs the question of how much longer it will be before we had a Red Bull High School or Nissan Elementary.
By branching the film out from the film industry to show how product placement has penetrated a “sacred” system like education, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold can’t help but make you wonder whose fault it really is. Are major corporations to blame for being greedy and wanting to have their brand in as many places as possible? Or have we, as a culture of international consumerism, become so accustomed to having a major company’s logo on every little thing that this is just an inevitability? Spurlock establishes that product placement can have a detrimental effect on art (though he makes sure to show us he didn’t cede final creative control over his film), but he also presents the harrowing reality that we as a culture aren’t that far behind the entertainment industry in accepting corporate sponsorship in all facets of life as a necessary evil. The fact that we’re laughing quite hard even as we receive this message is a testament to Spurlock’s ability to expertly package the bitter with the sweet. That’s his brand.
"The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" opens April 22, 2011 and is rated PG13. Comedy, Documentary. Directed by Morgan Spurlock. Written by Morgan Spurlock, Jeremy Chilnick. Starring Brett Ratner, Quentin Tarantino, Jj Abrams, Morgan Spurlock, Peter Berg, Ralph Nader.
