Friday, April 22, 2011

Morgan Spurlock's New Documentary is About Advertising and Paid for by Advertising


“This article about advertising is about a documentary about advertising that its makers say is entirely paid for by advertising.” Let this digest for a moment. It sounds like a riddle but it isn’t. It’s a summation and opening line of “Film on Branded Content Examines a Blurred Line” by Stuart Elliott, which is about Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary, “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”.

Spurlock is best known for “Super Size Me”, which contributed to the debate about the role of fast food chains in unhealthy diets. “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” is about branded content, “which is reshaping popular culture by blurring the line between entertainment and advertising in realms like movies, TV shows, songs, video games and online gaming.” In the documentary, Spurlock shows how he got advertisement funding by selling a movie about branding. Advertisers paid for advertising space and this film is going to have a lot of product placement. I haven’t seen the trailer but according to Elliott the trailer states, “everything from top to bottom is branded from beginning to end”.

The movie also includes interviews with people in the advertising industry talking about advertising. While the idea to appear in a documentary that critically parodies advertising would seem like a turn off, according to the article many brands participated and funded the movie. Why? According to one employee, Karen Frank, of a placed product, “We decided to participate not only because we admire Morgan’s work as a filmmaker but also as a way to show that we don’t take ourselves or the industry so seriously that we can’t have fun”. I think she forgot to say “at a price”. It’s hard to believe the industry didn’t take this seriously when at least one sponsor paid $1 million and Parker’s product, Ban, spent $50,000.

The result of advertisers either taking this branding opportunity seriously or having a little fun is a documentary that will be educational about the process of branded content, the way a movie can be funded, and the extreme uses of product placement. All in all the saying goes “if you can’t beat them, join them”; maybe the advertising industry is paying up and hoping “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” doesn’t give it a bad name. After all, I don’t think a movie which parodies product placement can influence me to buy those products even if the products paid for the movie itself.





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