The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

In class, we watched a movie called “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”. The main purpose behind this movie was for us to see what really goes on behind the scenes of the making of a movie when it comes to props and brands that are being used. Everything in a movie comes down to brands and advertising. Advertising over the years has increased in many different ways on different platforms, tv ads used to be the most popular way of advertising but it is now obsolete. Advertising over the years is all about creativity, who can make their brand stand out the most in a way that catches the audiences eye and want them to get that product as well. In the US this past year, $42 billion was spent on ads. In the documentary, Morgan Spurlock tried to create an entire movie solely based off of advertising, product placement, and marketing. Spurlock had made many phone calls and appointments with brands to make a pitch to them of what his movie was going to be about and wanted all these brands to be apart of it. Majority of the brands that he reached out to had decline his offer, but that didn’t stop him nor discourage him from stopping. Part of being able to get these brands to like you and want to be part of your movie has to do with brand collateral. Brand Collateral is creating yourself as your own brand, what makes you stand out from the other brand? What makes you different and why. Not only did Spurlock research each company before making a pitch to them, but each pitch he made was tailored towards that company, and how they would benefit the most from being about of this movie. He even came prepared with visual examples of how that specific company would play a role in the movie. Visual representations are such a great idea because it is a lot easier for a company to see your vision, as well as it shows that you did your research and put the time and effort into it. Spurlock thought that creating this movie with based on product placement was going to be a great idea and he had his overall vision of what the movie was going to be like. Over time, the more brands and sponsorships that he signed, he realized that the power that he had over the film was startin to decrease because each and every brand had their wants and needs of being featured in the film that needed to be fulfilled. POM Juice was their biggest sponsor in the movie overall, Spurlock had stated “how much control do I really have which having to drink POM Pomegrante Juice?” He realized it was very little. This movie was considered faction, which is a mixture of fact and fiction.