  Director Morgan Spurlock poses for a portrait while promoting his documentary "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah January 23, 2011. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni |
PARK CITY, Utah -- If there was truth in advertising, Morgan Spurlock's new film would be the greatest.
But there isn't and it's not. So realistically, he'll have to settle for it being the greatest he's made since Super Size Me, the breakthrough 2004 documentary that chronicled his deterioration when he went on a McDonald's-only diet.
Similarly, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold -- now officially known as POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold -- finds the 40-year-old cheerfully mocking and dissembling big business via a first-person experiment/stunt.
Specifically, he focuses on product placement and the dubious alignment that exists between corporate marketing and Hollywood. The idea, Spurlock explains, stemmed from his own industry experiences.
"After being in the entertainment business and, post-Super Size Me, being thrust into network television and studio conversations, I thought it was one of those films right for me, right now," he tells QMI Agency in a Main Street lounge.
The concept is elegantly deconstructionist: Spurlock pitched potential sponsors to finance his $1.5-million movie.
In exchange, he'd incorporate their products throughout the film -- even as he explores and questions our ad-saturated popular culture.
Not surprisingly, most of the corporations rejected him flatly.
"I had zero back-up plan," he recalls. "As we were six months in and spending money, we were like, 'Is this going anywhere?' There were people who told us, 'I don't want to get fired. We can't do this movie.' But there were enough people who liked it that we didn't want to give up, and I didn't want to give up. At some point I'll have an idea (for a movie) and think, 'This is great' all the way through (shooting)."
Seven months and hundreds of pitches later, Spurlock snagged his first partner: the deodorant Ban. "That was like a lightning bolt," he says.
Once Ban signed on, others followed. So while The Greatest features Spurlock yanking back the curtain of corporate advertising, he does so while quaffing POM juice (which also paid to have its name in the title), driving Mini Coopers and bathing with the human/equine health-care shampoo known as Mane N Tail. Never heard of it? Neither had he. "My prediction," Spurlock says. "Their sales go through the roof."
The same will likely be true for all the companies involved. Exposure is exposure. And the fact is, after an hour of watching Spurlock drink POM on the big screen, you're thirsty for one yourself.
"The take-away of this movie is that product placement does actually work. In the past two screenings we've had a person at both say, 'I don't know how I feel about this, but I want to buy these products.' "
Of course, Spurlock himself is a brand -- something that's pointed out when one analyst tells him that he falls into the marketing category of "mindful/playful."
Does he approve? "Yeah, it's good," Spurlock says. "The whole idea of the projects I do is that we love to have them be smart and we want them to be funny. I want to feed you spinach, but I want it to taste like cotton candy. I don't want my films to be like medicine."
Now with the movie set for release in April (Sony Pictures Worldwide snapped up the rights at Sundance), Spurlock will shortly start -- what else? -- promoting it in earnest.
Another prediction? "There'll be more cross-promotion for this movie than has ever happened for a documentary ever."
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
More Artists
