Next month, Morgan Spurlock, who is well-known for his shocking ‘Super Size Me’ film ‘dedicated’ to McDonald’s fast food, will present his new documentary ‘POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,’ which is all about product placement and sponsored by companies featured in it, to a broader audience. The new work by the acclaimed filmmaker who comes face to face with brands debuted at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January with the theatrical release slated for April 22 (in the U.S.).
“While using brands in film promotion is not new for Hollywood, it certainly is new territory for the documentary format. In this comical exploration and thorough exploitation of Morgan Spurlock, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold explores the world of advertising and marketing as Morgan uses his integrity as currency to sell out to the highest bidder. Spurlock will shine the definitive light on our branded future as he tries to create the Iron Man of documentaries, the first ever docbuster!” states the synopsis on the website of the film.
Poster: www.imdb.com
The film, directed and co-written by Morgan, is unveiling modern commercial tie-ins with cinema and television. It explores everything related to promoting a brand or an artist through movies and TV programs—during 90 minutes, the protagonist meets with the companies, interested in being featured in the movie, as well as has interviews with celebrities (Brett Ratner, Quentin Tarantino, JJ Abrams, OK!Go and more), who have been engaged in product placement. Spurlock contacted around 500-600 brands and companies, both local, family-owned ones and global corporations, but eventually only 15 of them said ‘yes’ to sponsor the flick (their contributions to the film budget made up $1.5 million) and be featured there.
Still, there are some controversies as to the brands supporting the movie. In his interview to IndieWire, Morgan Spurlock states that “hundreds and hundreds of people said no. Ben Sherman, Reebok, Nike, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, every clothing company you can imagine,” still Old Navy is on the list of sponsors of the movie (along with POM, Merrell, Seventh Generation to name a few) and featured on his ‘brand-tattooed’ body on the poster along with MINI, which is not on the list. All the questions will be answered on April 22, when the film will be first screened in select U.S. cities.