Super Cash Me

Having taken on the McDonald's diet in "Super Size Me", Morgan Spurlock now turns to advertising. "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" is a look at product placement, completely funded by product placements. Much of the documentary features Spurlock asking people about how product placement works, as well as inquiring about the ethics of it. The big surprise to me is just how prevalent product placement is (you're going to be hard-pressed to find a Hollywood movie that doesn't feature it).

Since a lot of the documentary features talking heads -- among them Noam Chomsky and Quentin Tarantino -- it's a little repetitive at times, but it's mostly a good look at the extent to which commercialism saturates our lives. And very funny every step of the way! And remember: always drink POM!

Some people would have you believe that Spurlock is trying to dupe his audience and exploit advertisers for profit, like this is a BAD thing. But that's just it - it's not. After you see this movie, you might actually notice the subtle, insidious advertising which is omnipresent in our society. he rubs your face in it, exposes some of the inner-workings of the ad-market and tries his hardest not to look like a whore all the while.

Let's not forget Spurlock's masochistic endeavor to eat McDonalds 3x daily for a month. Is that not genuine? This time he lays his reputation on the line instead of his health, and to those who are offended by it: are you less offended by movies that use product placement shamelessly without informing the audience? Spurlock had to walk a thin line to make this movie, and I think he walked it beautifully.

At the 2011 Hot Docs opening and Canadian premiere screening of Morgan Spurlock's POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold the peppy logo-clad filmmaker told the audience his film will have the effect of changing the way we look at advertising, TV, and films. Maybe Spurlock has been hanging out with a different crowd recently, because his grasp of audience intelligence—especially a doc audience—is certainly off the mark in terms of advertising savvy. While his film, as hilarious and entertaining as it is, won't be affecting the way I look at advertising, it definitely changes the way I now look at Morgan Spurlock.

Spurlock is a master story-teller to be sure, and this was readily apparent in one of the funniest, rollicking Q&As I've had the pleasure to sit through. Story after story rolled off his lips in all manner of imitation and animation – and had pretty much all in attendance slapping knees and grabbing sides in fits of laughter. His 2004 doc-buster hit Super Size Me told the story of one man's experiment to eat only McDonald's food while suffering the consequences. His 30 Days television series was a masterpiece jewel in the cheap tin crown of reality television fare. With all these storytelling accomplishments and talent under his belt his most recent work, a 90 minute celebration of advertising, marketing and commercialization bereft of any engaging narrative, comes as a whopping disappointment.

Don't get me wrong – if you want funny, entertaining, inquisitive Spurlock you'll get your dose in this documentary about sponsorship in film. But if you're looking for critical analysis or an investigative lens you'll be very disappointed. Spurlock's film is the ultimate postmodern documentary – a film paid for by corporate sponsors about the business of financing films through corporate sponsorship. On the surface it's a great idea, but Spurlock doesn't scratch that surface to reveal the real "inner workings" of the business or the consequences of a social reality dominated by advertising and marketing. As one audience member said to him, the film is all joy – where are the questions? Spurlock, predictably upbeat responded that if the audience is uneasy about these things after watching The Greatest Movie Ever Sold than the film has done its job. Right.

As a postmodern self-reflexive work there is surprisingly little self-reflection in PWPTGMES. Spurlock is in almost every frame of the film – flogging his film idea to ad execs, flogging products, and making light of critical voices like Ralph Nader. Between getting free stuff, zipping around the country meeting rich people (why Donald Trump's opinion was sought in this film remains a mystery), and drinking litres and litres of POM juice, Spurlock apparently has little time to really critically explore the nature of what he's doing and what the whole thing is about. Sure he has his moments of wondering aloud if he's going too far down the rabbit hole, but they feel as forced and staged as his meetings with CEOs and marketing gurus (all shot with atrocious camera work it has to be said). One senses that he went into this much like he went into Super Size Me: as a personal challenge and experiment, just to see if he could do it. And, lo and behold, of course he can – he's Morgan Spurlock after all.

The first half of the film had me in stitches as he set up the gag. But by mid-way I was bored of watching Spurlock in predictable scenarios flogging everything from shoes to under-arm deodorant to airlines. I kept waiting for him to go deeper, to really provoke some critical thought on the issue of advertising and marketing. By the end of the film, this craving went unabated, much like my new craving to drink POM juice – thanks to what has to be the best marketing coup for a juice company since Dole colonized Carmen Miranda.

So if you're looking for a funny, intelligent, provocative and critical documentary on advertising and marketing I highly recommend seeking out the wonderful 2004 Czech film Czech Dream. If you want to laugh with and at Morgan Spurlock as he makes a mint from celebrating crass commercialism, check out POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, that is, if you have the stomach for it.

The Brilliant thing Morgan Spurlack does with this movie, is he throws in your face, what advertisers and movie executives have hidden, (in some case very poorly) in the movies they produce. The Transformers all being GMC for example. Spurlack satirises the whole idea of advertisements and sells out his own film in the process, though he sells out only to buy in, so he doesn't really sell out. Its this ingenious and hilarious concept to the movie which makes you think "holy cow I'm an idiot" and Morgan pushes his film to show the manipulative ways of commercial giants. Another clever trick Morgan uses is the, documentary within a documentary style. The film follows Morgan as he attempts to get advertising for his film which is going to be a documentary on advertising. So essential what we see is the pre-production of a movie which then becomes the movie. This gives a real insight in to how the big Hollywood blockbusters are able to get such high budgets by selling to advertisers.

This film only really appeals to people who are interested in how the media is able to have control over consumers, as we are pretty much witnessing a prolonged documentary on how Morgan Spurlock can find a million dollars to make a pretend movie.

A cleverly put together gem that manages to patronise an audience in to realising just how we can be manipulated by the big name brands.

Morgan Spurlock has delivered a fascinating satire of the process of placing products into movies and the ubiquitous nature of advertising in our society. He takes us inside the process by showing us what it takes to make a movie and to gain corporate sponsorship for it. He allows us to see the process by getting corporations to underwrite his movie about product placement. He uses humor – as he did with fast food in Super Size Me - to point to the insidious way into which advertising has slipped into film-making and become a major part of its profit model of film making. He isn't the first one to do this, of course. Feature films like Thank You for Smoking and The Truman Show have pointed out this phenomenon. Steve Colbert has also does so regularly on his show. Still by putting it into a documentary form, Spurlock has taken the critique to a new level. The sponsoring companies will likely benefit through their association with his humorous critique of corporate America. The movie-going public will benefit if they become more cognizant of the pervasive nature advertising in films. Spurlock has shown us yet again that it is much easier to get the public to listen to critiques our economic system if they are delivered with a good-natured sense of humor.