Morgan Spurlock's "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" gives you some laugh-out-loud moments as it wallows an ugly truth about our culture: it's for sale. And the marketing people with the biggest purses and the most audicity control the message. The rest of us are pretty much their pawns.I said it was an ugly message.
Spurlock, unlike Michael Moore, who tries to kill a fly with a hammer in his documentaries, is funny and poignant without going overboard. He controls the movie, the message and, ultimately, even the people who paid the $1.5 million it took to get this movie made. He made us all think twice about ever again going to McDonald's for a burger and fries with "Super Size Me" and my guess is that you're going to start taking more notice of the product placement in movies and on television shows if you see this movie.
The movie is about making the movie about placing products in the movie. He takes us to the sales meetings, the negotiations, and we get to be a fly on the wall of the entire thought and creative process. Frankly, this little baby got too close to some things that are happening with me professionally for me to be completely comfortable, but his perspective gave me a good bit to consider that I might not have without the movie.
If you're in advertising or media or even public relations, you gotta see this one. You may not like it, but you need to hear the message.
Yes, there is a line in a song being played on regular radio stations: "if you own the information, you can bend it all you want."
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