Dwight Dekeyser rating: BBB
Dear Friend,
Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock alleges to “pull the curtain back” on product placement and advertising in the motion picture industry in this amusing high-octane documentary. It is not the type of industry expose that made him famous in his documentary, Super Size Me (2004), where he chronicled the toxic effect of McDonald’s food on the human body (his own), but rather it is an exploration of the art and science of the advertising industry and its effect on the human mind. While he does not come to the conclusion that incessant product promotion in our society has the same deleterious results as fast food, I wonder if he would not have come to that conclusion had he not been so eager to find sponsors in order to produce his film. It is this fatal flaw that denied this documentary the impact it might have had were it free from commercial contamination. Nonetheless, this picture does have much to commend it.
Viewing The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, was like attending an entertaining crash course on modern advertising. (I bet even Spurlock never thought of pitching his picture to universities as course material.) A super salesman, he relentlessly peddles his idea of product promotion within a film about product promotion to any company that will listen. Many did not as Spurlock suffered one rejection after another from companies well aware of his reputation for investigative filmmaking. They were not going to be the next McDonald’s. The companies that actually allowed Spurlock to film his hilarious storyboard presentations became part of the film. In this way, they got to be more than a sponsor, but a part of the story – an unheard of side benefit. (Now, aren’t they sorry?)
Spurlock was forced to broaden his examination of product placement in movies to include the advertising business as a whole. He did this by visiting advertising consultants, who gave him extensive psychological tests to determine his “brand personality” (He was found “mindful” and “playful.”) He even had his brain scanned to record his reactivity to commercial stimulation with its concomitant release of dopamine. (“Dopamine is addiction.”) Then there was the holy trinity of buyer motivation. (Fear, Craving, and you guessed it, Sex.) We also learn that “products do not lead to contentment, but are a conduit for what we want.” (Products are the means to the end, not the end.) And above all else, “advertising as a concept is a means of manipulation.” (No explanation required.)
Some of his other consultants included Noam Chomsky, who counseled the director to allow sponsors to co-opt him, if just a little; Ralph Nader, who was delighted to get a free pair of shoes in his size, no less; and the ultimate self-promoter Donald Trump, who could not understand why recording artists would not lend their music to promote his products, i.e. himself. It is this point that I find most instructive about this documentary. When people asked Arthur Miller what Willy Lowman sold in Death of a Salesman (1949), he would always answer “himself.” This was exactly what Morgan Spurlock did though out the entire movie. Spurlock was not the just the salesman, he was the product. This was the greatest lesson I learned from this documentary – how to sell one’s self. I certainly did not hurt that Spurlock was charming and attractive, but it was his dogged determination that made him so admirable. He was unstoppable. The documentary may have been focused on its promotion, but it was ultimately about its creator. We are all our own products. I wonder how many of us know what we’re selling.
From the vault: Super Size Me (2004), directed by Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock makes himself sick by eating exclusively from McDonald’s for one month. It took his girlfriend, a vegan chef, to detox him and then turned the experience into a cookbook. (Did you know a single McDonald’s hamburger could come from as many as three different countries? Now, you do.)
Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jXReCaZ5Ts
Best of luck in your movie selections. Your faithful friend,
Dwight Dekeyser
© 2011 Dwight Dekeyser, Esq. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment