But if advertising is, indeed, "geographically imperialistic," and the growth of word-of-mouth marketing over the past decade is any indication—whereby brands try to seed buzz in our everyday conversations—we may well be facing the next creepy horizon of commercial colonization: "real life product placement.". His 2004 doc-buster hit Super Size Me told the story of one man's experiment to eat only McDonald's food while suffering the consequences. As the producer of Survivor once unsentimentally quipped: "[It] is as much a marketing vehicle it is a television show... My shows create an interest, and people will look at them, but the endgame here is selling the products in stores—a car, deodorant, running shoes. We want to hear what you think about this article. You may also like. Will Morgan Spurlock's new documentary, "POM Wonderful Presents: Well… it’s not that simple. It all started with the premiere of Super Size Me at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Sponsors were provided with brand category exclusivity. Affiliate links used when available. "You gotta love a product that A behind-the-scenes look at the fans who gather by the thousands each year in San Diego, California to attend Comic-Con, the world's largest comic book convention. Like him, or hate him, Morgan Spurlock has quickly become a staple of the documentary world. answers. Spurlock set out to make a film about product placement and instead may have created the most meta movie ever produced. It's not sad, of course; Garth—and Reebok—are in on the joke, and the product placement manages to charm its way through its own obtrusiveness to memorable effect. "Is neuromarketing evil?" April 22, 2011 . The rest of my favorite links are here. If the title of Pom Wonderful Presents The Greatest Story Ever Sold elicits a wry giggle, the specter of Pom Wonderful Presents The New York Times or Pom Wonderful Presents Your Best Friend's Status Update or Pom Wonderful Presents A Casual Conversation With Your Cousin might give us more pause. Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy. Michael Serazio. transparent brand integrators in the history of the form. It would have been nice to hear honest stories about how a filmmaker’s vision was compromised for a product placement deal (giving us real insight into how hurtful these deals might be to art), however we are instead left with Ratner explaining that the “movie business” contains the word “business” (thanks Brett… we didn’t notice that) and Tarantino explaining that he has been unable to get product placement in his films (he tried to shoot scenes for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction at Dennys, but they didn’t want any part of the films). But on a whole, I learned almost nothing new about the world of product placement. In addition to POM Wonderful, the sponsors of "The Greatest While using brands in film promotion is not new for Hollywood, it certainly is new territory for the documentary format. Pop music, an industry whose revenue model has been battered in the past decade by digitalization, peer-to-peer networks, and illegal downloading, has begun experimenting with its own furtive form of corporate ventriloquism to the tune of $30 million for lyrical insertions. Cooper, Merrell shoes, Sheetz convenience stores, Amy's Kitchen Since Run-DMC first rhapsodized about their sneakers in the 1980s, hip hop has, in particular, played an outsized role in this game: When Busta Ryhmes and P. Diddy dropped "Pass the Courvoisier," sales for the premium liquor jumped nearly 20 percent; McDonalds has reportedly tendered financial bounty to any rap star that weaves the Big Mac into rhymes; Jay-Z inked a "poetry-for-pagers" deal with Motorola; and Wrigley's commissioned Chris Brown's top-10 smash, "Forever" (with its chorus line nod to a 1980s Doublemint jingle).