"The Greatest Movie Ever Sold"

I was assigned to watch the film “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” this past week in my Leadership and The Law course. Even before watching this, I realized that this is a movie that I would never choose to watch on my own, but I am genuinely glad that I did. This movie introduced so much information about advertising and marketing that I had never thought about before in the film industry. In this film we follow Morgan Spurlock, a filmmaker and documentarian who intends to inform the world about the impact of product placement in media, specifically in movies. Mr. Spurlock’s primary goal was to fully finance a film solely by product placement, to show the world how common product placement is and how it affects our perception of the film.

The first thing I had realized after watching this film was that product placement is everywhere. Restaurants, drink companies, and many other corporations are all subtly referenced or seen in media of all kinds. Seeing the processing of negotiating and drafting a contract was very interesting to see, to which a large portion of the movie was dedicated to. It seemed impossible for him to be able to incorporate product placement for all the various corporations that he made deals with, and at times the movie seemed like a single, very long commercial for various products.

The second thing I had realized after watching this film was the distinct style in which it was created. This film is obviously a documentary, but the way that Spurlock approached this movie it seemed as if it was a documentary inside of a documentary. The film itself was a paradox of Morgan Spurlock going around the world, making deals with various companies about a movie he was planning to make. I honestly have to say, although unconventional, it was a very interesting take on a movie and gave him the opportunities to use product placement in this film, even as he was making contracts with these various companies.

The third thing I noticed is that many companies were drawn to this film with the allure of being “The Greatest Brand”. As it is referenced in the title, Spurlock attempted to persuade people to work with him on this movie by using this phrase and preying on the vanity of these corporation and thus was able to draw in those that wanted to be referenced as “The Greatest Brand”. Companies such as Pom Wonderful, JetBlue, Ban, and various others all formed contracts to be referenced in this film and thought of as the best brand. This truly speaks to the brand personality of these companies and shows how much they value being the best and being recognized for that.

All in all, I thought that this was a great movie, at some points it was confusing and difficult to follow, but it was very informative. This was a non-traditional approach to a film and was genuinely something that got me thinking about how I view product placement in movies. Spurlock referenced the film “Iron Man” as having many product placements such as Coca Cola, Audi, and many others. Which helped me to realize how common product placement is, as well as how undetectable it can be. We see many of these products in our day to day lives and don’t think twice when we see these products in movies, as they are rarely emphasized heavily. Spurlock took a different view on product placement and made all these opportunities very noticeable so he could drive home his main point that product placement is everywhere.