Super Cash Me

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.

Futurama had an episode that submitted in the year 3000 advertisers will be able to send signals in the air that put commercials into people's dreams. Funny that Ralph Nader mentions sleep as the last place you can go to escape ads. In today's world, they're pervasive. It's a good topic for an amusing and entertaining filmmaker (Morgan Spurlock, who previously had success with his anti-fast food pic Super Size Me). Much as with Super Size Me, Spurlock pulls a stunt; this documentary is funded by product placement.

There are certain limitations inherent in such a project. Make a film against product placement, and the worst offenders will not want to help it. In the end he mostly finds businesses I've never heard of (Ban, Sheetz). So we don't see how the bigger corporations go about product placement. That said, we see a bit of how it works, as Spurlock's sponsors send him contracts making various demands.

At times it seems this movie is more about itself than product placement generally, but we do have some good discussions spread throughout the film. It is true blatant advertising is insulting, yet the film poses the question of whether subtle advertising is more dangerous. The presentation is funny, including with the Mane 'n Tail material. (Why didn't that company pay for the publicity? They even got a Wikipedia page because of this movie). The film has some good music and I can testify that it looks great on Blu-ray. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold may not be the greatest documentary, but it's worth a look.

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.

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.

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!