The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Page #5

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As all these contracts are coming in,

I'm just a bit overwhelmed,

at a loss, confused.

So with POM, based on this contract,

can I drink anything else in the movie?

I don't think you can,

And I would certainly recommend against it

because, I think it sort of goes...

Even if there's not an explicit prohibition,

you've got to show some deference

to this sponsor and this product.

It says here we're gonna give them the right

to use content of the mm,

Do we get to decide what content that is?

Most of these sponsors are looking

for sort of a reciprocal quid pro quo thing

where you're gonna use their brands,

but they do want a piece of this movie

and to be able to associate themselves

with the movie

and with the valuable name

and image of Morgan Spurlock,

They're asking for final approval of the Elm.

Do we have to show them the whole movie?

If they have have approval of the whole mm,

yes, you'd have to show them

the whole movie.

But do... We don't have to...

Do we have to do that

or can we just show them pieces of the film?

This is a multi-national brand,

and they're very protective

about how they're going to be perceived,

and how their brand is going to be perceived.

I feel like we're losing...

I'm gonna lose the ability

to actually have control over the movie,

And I just need you to tell me",

Or you tell me if I am,

I just wanna know that

I can still make the movie I wanna make.

How much influence

are they gonna have over the movie?

It depends on the movie

that you wanna make.

At the end of the day, it's your voice

and it's gonna be your reputation

as a filmmaker that you have to protect,

You have to stand up

for what you believe is working for the mm

and what isn't working for the film.

- You have a couple of choices,

- Okay.

One choice is to allow yourself

to be co-opted a little bit.

That's you know...

You dip your toe in the water,

Pretty soon you're putting your foot

in the water,

pretty soon you're swimming,

And you don't think you're changing,

You just say, "Okay, I'll do a little more,"

You end up swimming,

that's what they're anticipating,

The other option is to resist,

and maybe end up in Montana

growing your own food,

This movie is actually documentary evidence

of how f***ed up marketing is,

It's shrill, it's ever-present.

Whatever... If there was ever anything

pristine about the world we live in,

it no longer is, right?

Because you can't go anywhere

without encountering this stuff.

First thought,

what's it gonna do to Morgan Spurlock?

And what's it going to do

to the satire and the spoof?

Because you can satirize and spoof yourself

out of your objective.

But out of this mm might come

a transformed, commercialized,

corporatized Morgan Spurlock,

And you'll never be able

to shake the identity.

That's your peril. That's your challenge,

Well, have you got a pair of these?

- They're giving you products, too?

- These are Merrells.

You're gonna be completely clothed

with their products?

Absolutely. And this is a fantastic shoe.

- What is it?

- This is B Merrell,

- Merrell?

- Merrell, yeah,

- Where is it made?

- Merrell, they're made in America,

- Wow.

- Yeah,

Right here in the US of A,

- Is it new?

- They've been out a few years.

I've had a pair of these before,

and so we called them because actually,

I'm a fan.

- Yeah, how's the arch support?

- It's great.

- And the water?

- The waters good,

They make boots that are waterproof as well.

- So where are they sold?

- They're sold in outdoor stores and,"

- Catalogs?

- And catalogs,

Merrell. Com, at their website.

- I'll have to look at that,

- Yeah,

- Yeah. This is a good shoe.

- Yeah.

Tell you one thing I'm glad of,

is that I'm not driving some

piece of sh*t Volkswagen right now.

Like, this car runs so good.

It is, like, the greatest machine

you could have on the road.

Gets the best gas mileage. It looks amazing,

How good do these cars look?

They look incredible.

Everybody seems to have a differing opinion,

Can you still have credibility

once a brand gets involved?

I would argue it depends

on what kind of show it is.

If it's like a GRAMMY...

An Emmy Award winning drama,

- like, I don't know, ER...

- Law & Order

Law & Order:

I would say that's a little more foreign,

If it's more of a breezy show,

or a reality show...

Reality and sports, all bets are off already.

It's already off.

Another question is comedies and dramas,

That's the prime real-estate of network TV.

What is the most egregious

product placement you've ever seen?

In the last two years, we're seeing people

say things in dialog

that WAS intended for the show.

"I couldn't have been here

without Dr. Pepper!"

Maybe if you stopped drinking

so much Dr. Pepper.

We're on a road trip.

Drinking Dr. Pepper

is practically a requirement,

"I love that Subway $5 Footlong!"

What can I do for you, son?

I got an extra Chicken Teriyaki Footlong.

I thought someone would be interested in.

- I think that's really...

- That's fantastic.

Holy mother, whats going on there?

- No one says that, no one acts that way...

- Nobody acts that way.

No one acts that way.

It's always unnatural and it's forced-

it's so forced that you go,

"I'm not watching a show,

"I'm watching a commercial. "

And that ruins the whole experience,

Brian Steinberg may hate it

when product placement is too obvious,

but since Pm contractually obligated,

to do an interview in JetBlue's

new state-of-the-art Terminal 5,

I thought this would be a great place

to talk to someone who thinks

the bigger problem

is that people don? Know

they're being advertised to.

Robert Weissman is the president

of the consumer advocacy group

Public Citizen,

and hes championing a radical way

to differentiate advertisements

from entertainment.

With product placement,

what do you think Should be done?

In Elms and television...

The most important thing,

especially for television,

is to have simultaneous labeling

that people are being hit with an

advertisement at the moment they are,

- Right.

- There should be some little pop-up

that comes on and says, "Advertisement. "

It could be a scroll at the bottom,

a little pop-up, whatever.

At the moment that people

are being advertised to

they should know

they're being advertised to,

The advertisers in the television industry

say, The horror! That'd be terrible. "

Because it would create clutter

on the screen.

- Right.

- But anyone who's watched television

fol"betweeen"I three and 10 seconds

knows there's tons of clutter on the screen

almost all the time

There's the logo for the network,

there's pop-up advertisements,

- there's emergency things going across",

- Yeah,

...different programs,

there's two streams going across,

and other stuff on the side,

so there's already tons of clutter.

If they can do clutter for advertisement,

they can do a little additional piece

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