POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Review)

Morgan Spurlock’s greatest strength is that he’s willing to throw himself wholeheartedly into his premises with a beaming smile on his face. His breakout film, Super Size Me, proved this. Not only did he eat nothing McDonald’s for 30 straight days, he ate as much as humanly possible. The result was memorably unglamorous. The audience sat there and watched their host grow progressively larger, more lethargic, and just generally disgusting. Still, some criticize Spurlock for making his films more about himself rather than his subjects. In the case of POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold—his best film—this self-centricity helps rather than hurts the final product. Through Spurlock’s journey into the world of advertising and product placement, he introduces the audience to a process they may not know a great deal about. It’s not just about the omnipresence of advertisement; it’s about why advertisement is omnipresent.

The basic premise is that Spurlock is attempting to make a film about product placement which is funded entirely through product placement. Early on, he calls various companies asking them to fund his film. (Shockingly, he never attempts to reach McDonald’s, though that would have been an amusing scene.) In return, he will prominently use their products during the film, create in-movie advertisements, and (in one case) put the product name in the film’s title. In a strange way, the film’s own creation is its plot. We follow Spurlock as he acquires sponsors, talks to experts about advertisement, and works on the promotional campaign for his own film.

Spurlock actually has some interesting questions to ask about the modern world of advertisement. Why has it become so ubiquitous? How important is it to get your brand into the public eye? How does one create the ideal advertisement? Should this all be regulated? It never outright answers them, but it doesn’t want to be the final word on anything. Spurlock has always looked to be a conversation-starter rather than a preacher. Where documentarians like Michael Moore often have a distinct position, Spurlock has none in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. He only seeks to fully immerse himself into the world of self-promotion.

In fact, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold often argues that selling out may not be all that bad. Spurlock talks to a few musicians that have had their music featured in commercials, and they make the case that in the age of illegal downloading this may be the only way to make money and get their music out to the masses. There are interviews with filmmakers such as J.J. Abrams, Peter Berg, Brett Ratner and Quentin Tarantino, who say that product placement has rarely been much of an annoyance. (Tarantino even says that he doesn’t use much product placement simply because most companies have no interest in him.) This film does not believe that advertisement is destroying the world, and in an age of muckraking it seems kind of refreshing.

That’s not to say the film wholly embraces advertisement. There’s a sequence in the film where Spurlock travels to Sao Paulo, Brazil; a city which banned advertisement altogether. While you think it may not look all that different, the results are actually quite striking. In contrast to an advertising Mecca like Times Square, Sao Paulo looks downright peaceful. Likewise, the final sequence of the film—which features Spurlock taking his young son and a walk through the wilderness—makes the argument that there is something to be said for a world where you aren’t only seen as a potential customer.

Above all, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a success simply because it is funny. Spurlock is a genuinely amiable host, and a topic like product placement proves quite the fit for his signature lightweight style. The movie’s most amusing moments come during Spurlock’s full-blown commercials for POM Wonderful, JetBlue, Hyatt and horse/man shampoo Mane ‘n Tail. It’s this sense of humor that allows Spurlock to have his cake and eat it too. If the film has one great message, it’s that product placement has become ubiquitous because—whether you like it or not—it works. When The Greatest Movie Ever Sold was over, I knew only one thing: I’d sure like to try some of that POM Wonderful stuff.

GRADE: A-