Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Story Ever Sold opens in Toronto on May 6th. It will expand in the coming weeks and is also currently showing in selected theatres in the US.
It is somewhat strange that someone like Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) should go to see someone to talk about his own "brand image" as seen in his latest piece of stunt journalism, Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (which has to be referred to by it's full title every time it is written in the press). Spurlock visits a man who tells him that the image that he puts forth is one that is both mindful and playful at the same time. These feelings often bump against one another, but can make for some good entertainment. PWP:TGMES is filled with entertaining moments and is a bit light on the more mindful aspects, but at least Spurlock attempts to show why that is.
In an effort to pull back the curtain on the world of integrated marketing, also known more commonly as product placement, Spurlock sets out to create the first ever "docbuster;" a film financed entirely through corporate synergy and branding. Realizing that he can't exactly get larger companies to talk to him, he instead settles for partnering with mostly smaller companies like Pom Wonderful, Ban deodorant, and Mini Cooper. Despite working with smaller brands, the film (which was always intended to be plotless to begin with) becomes harder to make since even the smaller companies have high demands on how their product should be viewed in the film.
Spurlock is a charismatic entertainer and a showman who could come across as glib but is really only doing the only thing he knows how to do. He is great about talking about a subject that bothers him and as a sort of defence mechanism he sets out to have fun with it. It is never exactly hard hitting stuff and it isn't always funny, but this particular film seems to play to his strengths and vulnerabilities.
There is an interesting disconnect going on between Spurlock's business acumen and his own naivete. In his dealings with the various corporations he visits he manages to be very bottom line oriented and carries on as a straight shooter that gives executives exactly what they want to hear. He is pretty much up front with everyone that he is just going to end up laughing about them behind their backs, and it is easy to see just why such an attitude is a refreshing change of pace in a corporate environment. The film picks up even more once Morgan finally gets to see the actual contracts he has to sign and everything he has to agree to do before seeing any of the money. It almost seems at times that if the film were to fail, he would actually lose money on the enterprise (and oddly enough still might).
The most interesting insights that the film offers, and there are a few, deal more with the psychology of advertising and the new techniques being used to determine how best to sell a product. Noam Chomsky is on hand briefly to discuss the role of linguistics. There is some really creepy stuff about how movie trailers (including the one for this film) are created with "neuromarketing." Spurlock also delights in having the incongruity to shill products to consumer advocates in the middle of their interviews. For film buffs there are also interviews with Peter Berg, Brett Ratner, and Quentin Tarantino who all have vastly different views on how product placement affects the industry. Most people can probably guess which one of them shrugs it off the easiest.
Very few people who watch Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold will really be very ignorant to what Spurlock is trying to say. The joke that he just made the audience watch a 90 minute ad reel is a good one, but it is a pretty easy joke to make. It doesn't exactly feel like Spurlock is even really trying all that hard to preach to any one person in particular. It is a fully fleshed out concept of a film that no one really asked for and probably didn't need to get made. The people who see big budget blockbusters and think nothing of them probably won't actively seek out a documentary to watch, but at least if they did they would probably be entertained while watching it.
Rating (out of four stars): ***
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