The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Movie Reflection

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Movie follows character Morgan Spurlock who has the intention of created a movie purely based on product advertisements. It follows his journey interacting and connecting with a vast amount of major and minor companies with the goal of having them pay to be included in the movie. The movie was financed fully by the product placement from the numerous brands he appealed to for marketing and advertising, which were all incorporated into the film. In the movie, he made a commitment to each brand that participated in the financing that they would be the only brand, in their specific product category, that was used or shown in the movie. So, brand category exclusivity. He did this by offering a variety of different levels of marketing in the movie, based on how much the company was willing to pay. Each level required a certain about of brands to pay to be advertised at that level. For example, POM Wonderful, who specialized in Pomegranate juice, paid the most to be the number one sponsor at the most expensive spot. Therefore, they were the only drink shown throughout the movie that was being enjoyed by people and they held the largest spot on all movie representation (the racecar jumpsuit, posters, etc.).

Personally, when I was younger I always thought that brand placement in films was random and they just chose whatever drink or food that they wanted and used it. I never thought about how brands paid to be shown in certain movies for advertising and marketing purposes. However, once I started to think about it there are definitely times I was watching a movie and saw a certain brand and it stuck out in my head, which is the goal. Most movies just have brands hidden throughout; however, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Movie purely is about the brands it enquired. Spurlock took this to new levels with every single thing being branded by the sponsors. It showed the marketing and advertising process for brand representation that goes on behind the closed doors of a movie that consumers and audiences aren’t aware of.

While I think the movie was very informative on the topic of product placement and marketing, I felt like there was a lot going on throughout the movie, almost too much. At some points, I got confused because I felt like it would flash from one thing to the next without enough explanation that left me confused on where the movie was actually headed or when each brands exclusivity would start. I feel like the movie worked well on an informative level because I definitely learned way more about brand placement and marketing than I was previously aware of. However, I probably would not have gone to see this movie when it was in theaters had I know about it. Also, while it was informative and interesting the first time I watched it I don’t see myself going out of my way to watch it again. Overall, I think the film did a good job of explaining product placement and introducing the audience to what goes on behind closed doors in regard to brand marketing and advertising for movies.