Come ti vendo un film

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.

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.

Greetings again from the darkness. This is billed as "a documentary about branding, advertising and product placement that is financed and made possible by branding, advertising and product placement". My issue with the movie is that it's not really ABOUT anything! It's really more of a "How To Raise Money For Your Movie By Selling Advertising". And that does have some funny scenes and provide a glimpse into how the leaders of companies think.

Morgan Spurlock hit the big time in 2004 with his Oscar-nominated "Super Size Me", in which he filmed himself eating only McDonalds food for a full month. The difference in that movie and this one is that previously, he did much research and explained to the viewer the significance of cause and effect. In this most recent film, he promises insight into the abundance of product placement in the entertainment world, but really we get only a mish-mash of images and scenes.

The segments can be divided into these categories: conference room presentations, celebrity talking heads, industry experts, and Mr. Spurlock's own ruminations. Each of these segments are entertaining ... heck some are laugh outloud funny ... but in the end, we are left holding an empty bag. We have no more understanding of product placement than when we started. What we do have is a better feel for how desperate companies are to find new ways to advertise their products.

Some of the products featured in the film are: Hyatt, Jet Blue, Mini Cooper, Merrill shoes, Sheetz (gas and convenience) and of course, Pom Wonderful - the 100% pomegranate juice whose President and Owner ends up spending $1 million for above the title sponsorship. Some of the talking heads include Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Paul Brennan and Donald Trump. We get brief chats with film directors Peter Berg, Brett Ratner and Quentin Tarantino. Throw in a couple of lawyers, musicians and some industry experts and you get the impression that Spurlock did his homework.

I have spent some time thinking about this and I will stick to my conclusion. What the movie doesn't do is provide any insight or detail into what drives product placement in entertainment. However, the movie does a decent job showing us how presentations are made to advertising managers at companies, and it leans heavily on Mr. Spurlock's often-hilarious viewpoint of situations (Mane & Tail shampoo). When you get right down to it, isn't this just a glimpse at one segment of capitalism? When you have a product to sell, you are constantly looking for the most effective way to advertise that product to potential customers. Sorry, that's not insight, that's just Marketing 101.

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.

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!