really need to be a poster there?” He was so angry, in fact, that he decided to make a movie about
branding, marketing, and product placement, about the intrusion of brands into our everyday
lives. And then he proceeded to find some brands to sponsor that documentary.
THE GREATEST ARTICLE EVER!
CHEX OF OUR LIVES
Spurlock’s hilarious movie, now called Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,
will open in theaters on April 22nd. It is a movie about itself. That is, it’s a series of filmed
encounters in which Spurlock urges brands to sponsor his movie. Fifteen signed up, most paying
between $50,000 and $1 million. Spurlock asks them what their goals are in sponsoring his
movie, uses their products, and creates ads for them that run smack-dab in the middle of the film.
What he does not do is condemn them in any way, or denounce the concept of branding, or bemoan
a modern existence that allows brands into such places as toilets, taxis, classrooms, and on foreheads. He even gets corporate critics to play along in his hall of mirrors. One true joy of the movie
is watching Ralph Nader sing an ode to Merrell shoes, a sponsor.
Spurlock’s equanimity is so complete that he almost seems an apologist for the brands. Toward
the end of filming, he learned that Pom, which made a $1 million deal to have its name in the title,
was being charged by the Federal Trade Commission with making false health claims, namely that
pomegranate juice can “prevent or treat heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction.”
This isn’t mentioned anywhere in the movie. Would the Morgan Spurlock of the scathing Super Size
Me have let the F TC news pass unmentioned? “Listen,” he says, “we were well into the shooting when
that happened. I knew that the story would break during the release of the movie and decided to just
let that be part of the really interesting conversation that will happen around the film.”
Spurlock’s disingenuousness is part and parcel of his publicity plan for the movie—he even con-
ducts interviews wearing a jacket plastered with his sponsors’ logos. He now refers to his sponsors
as “The Greatest [insert your brand category here] Ever,” from Pom and Merrell to a convenience-
store chain (Sheetz), a pizza maker (Amy’s Kitchen), an airline (JetBlue), a hotel chain (Hyatt), and
nine others. When asked if these brands are ones he admires, he says, “I don’t think I could drink
something I didn’t like just for a check. These are the brands you should have in your life.”
But there is a grander strategy behind his comments. “Going into the negative effects of
advertising, of how much advertising affects us . . . you’ve heard that before,” he says. “The big
purpose with this movie is to get people to recognize this branding thing, and question it, and
wonder about the process.” In other words, be aware. With his caginess, Spurlock is inviting
viewers to debate whether consumers can trust his movie—or any of the content they receive.
Including this article. We’re flouting all kinds of magazine-industry guidelines on advertising
versus content here. We approached Spurlock’s sponsors to see if they wanted to advertise within
this story; we tried to become a sponsor of his movie; we told our publisher, who’s normally given
no details about our edit, exactly what to expect; we’ve even traded a mention in the text for
20 pizzas—all moves likely to be deemed unacceptable by our industry trade group (and ones we
won’t repeat). But we’ve done all this in an effort to follow Spurlock’s lead and explore the murky
intersection of media and branding in our own pages and our own industry. You’re the one who will
have to decide how much to trust us. (Of course, that’s a decision you make every time you open this
magazine or engage with any media.)
Daytime soaps are riddled
with truly egregious product
placements by the likes of Chex
Mix and Nature Valley, as a
great slide show on the
Entertainment Weekly website, ew.com,
illuminates. (Note: Entertainment
Weekly, where the coauthors of
this piece once worked, did not
pay to be mentioned here.)
NOBODY SELLS OUT
LIKE U2
All kinds of bands now license
their music to corporations, but
few deals have had as much
cred—or impact—as U2’s Apple
campaign. Apple, by the way,
placed more product in No. 1
movies last year than any other
company. Nike, Chevrolet, and
Ford tied for second, according
to Brandchannel.
THE ISSUE WITH SWIMSUITS
THE GREATEST PHOTO SHOOT EVER!
Sports Illustrated’s most popular issue appears in several
editions, including Chrome, iPad,
Twitter, You Tube, Galaxy, and
Direc TV. Ads are fully integrated
with the content online. The
issue’s huge success provides
resources for the magazine’s more
journalistic reporting the rest of
the year.
Spurlock has thrown himself into promoting his documentary—building its brand—with abandon. When the movie premiered at January’s Sundance Film Festival, Spurlock defied the cold
Utah winter by conducting his interviews wearing that logo-festooned blazer. Back in New York,
he readily shed his clothes for a FAST COMPAN Y photo shoot.
The brands backing The Greatest Movie Ever Sold have purchased this enthusiastic effort,
the bigger sponsors via publicity incentives built into their agreements. Pom, for example, has
delivered only $600,000 of its $1 million fee. “That $400,000 is tied to worldwide media impres-
sions, box office, downloads, and DVDs,” Spurlock explains. “Ten-million-dollar box office,
500,000 downloads and DVDs, 600 million media impressions. You should talk about that,
about how this article will help me get that. Can we do something where everyone who buys the
magazine gets a discount on movie tickets? Can we have a code that gives them a dollar off
through Movie Tickets.com [one of the film’s sponsors]?”
When we raised the idea of asking his sponsors to buy ads adjacent to this article, Spurlock
responded: “Do I get a cut?” Our answer to his question was no. That was a line we drew.
JetBlue marketing exec Fiona
Morrison, who appears in
Spurlock’s movie, was profiled in
our magazine twice and spoke at
one of our events. She’s also the
person who bought the ad at right
from our publisher. The joys
of the magazine business!
You never know how a source
will pay off—so to speak.
FIONA
MORRISON?
WE HAD
HER FIRST!
