The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)

I love Morgan Spurlock projects, and this one is no exception. Here he looks at the hand in glove relationship between product placement and  popular visual media. As someone who obtains most of his movie and TV content from, shall we say, “online” sources, this subject directly talks to the value I bring to the content creators, despite paying nothing for said content.

Do I bring value? I believe so. With product placement becoming the new standard for how companies advertise, what’s important to them is the number of eyeballs they reach, not how much the person has paid to watch their advertisement. The bigger the audience, the better. Therefore, if 10 million people download a movie for free and see the main character driving around in a BMW, does BMW really care how they came to see the movie? I don’t think they do.

This is one of many aspects on the product placement debate that Spurlock’s film will have you contemplating. It sheds light on something we know little about, yet completely surrounds us. And as usual, he does it in an interesting and entertaining manner.

Rating: B-