Super Size Me has a contender for the greatest documentary ever made. Morgan Spurlock has done it again by giving us another entertaining and fascinating documentary respectably titled: POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold! This was the second out of my three most anticipated films of the festival. I am a huge Spurlock fan and really appreciate his approach to his topic of interest, not to mention I had the honor of meeting Morgan after the screening.
From the official press release:
“ Morgan Spurlock explores the world of product placement, marketing and advertising in POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, a film that was fully financed through product placement from various brands, all of which are integrated transparently into the film.While using brands in film promotion is not new for Hollywood, it certainly is new territory for the documentary format. Spurlock exploits the phenomenon to new heights, with everything from branded pizza boxes and in-flight film promotions to branded-everything in-film.With humor and insight, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold unmasks the marketing process to bring audiences behind closed doors directly into the pitch meetings and marketing presentations which ultimately inform our everyday entertainment decisions. Sponsors were provided with brand category exclusivity. The brands that agreed to sponsor the film placed Spurlock front and center in their brand campaigns and advertisements, both on and off-line. Partners have the unique right to promote themselves in association with Spurlock and the film as “The Greatest.” The agreements also stipulate that Spurlock maintains creative control of the film’s content and final edit. “.
The film is everything you can want from a documentary and more. From start to end Morgan is able to keep the audience interested and laughing about how ridiculous product placement is today not just in films but in society as well. He takes you one a journey from when he begins pitching the idea, to making cold calls to get sponsorships, all the way to finally obtaining his goal and getting the entire documentary paid for by sponsorships. The film will keep you laughing and smiling the entire time and will also make you more aware of the advertisement and product placement in society.
My favorite part about the film is that he creates these “inside” jokes through out the film and is always able to relate to them later on in the film. For example in the very beginning he gets a rejection letter from VW and throughout the remainder of the film he comes back to this rejection letter and drops jokes left and right about it. It’s interesting to see the inner workings of advertisement and product placement in films, TV shows and just about everywhere in our day to day lives.
Overall I would recommend this film to everyone. I believe Morgan said the film has received a PG-13 rating so it’s suitable for everyone although there are a few F-bombs dropped and some sexual references in case parents were wondering.
The film is set to be released in limited markets April 22, 2011. Nation wide release will be some time in the mid to late summer months.
Rating: A super sized dose of the inner workings of product placement that will keep you entertained and laughing for 90 minutes. ( 9/10)
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