The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

This tongue in cheek documentary by the creator of Supersize Me is definitely worth a rental.  In The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Morgan Spurlock examines product placement in films while at the same time creating a film financed entirely through product placements.  You get to see him approaching skeptical companies to pitch his idea, and a few of the really cools ones actually accept.

I've always been sort of fascinated with advertising.  To me, its an intersection between two things I like: art and convincing people of things.  I almost always watch the commercials during shows, and like most people, and especially most females, I tune into the Super Bowl for one reason and one reason only: the commercials (okay and possibly also as an excuse to eat nachos).    There is good advertising and bad advertising of course, maybe even responsible and irresponsible advertising, but I don't think advertising is evil.

Like I said, I sort of enjoy being advertised to.  As you know from almost all my other entries, I used to live in New York City.  New York City is probably the capital of advertisements - hello Times Square.  But there are also advertisements in bus shelters, plastered on construction sites, on taxi cabs, even entire subway cars refinished on the outside and inside as advertisements.  We're such a big market we get commercials tailored to us, we get movie releases other parts of the country don't get, we even get product giveaways on street corners!  That's my favorite.  I've gotten Stacy's pita chips, Sabra hummus, Coca Cola, and Simply Orange orange juice.

The movie is really funny, but also thought provoking and interesting.  A brand personality company even notes that Morgan's brand is "mindful and playful" which sounds like a great combination for a Friday night rental to me.  Pick it up to find out what "neuro-advertising" is and then come back and decide whether you disagree with me about advertising being evil.