Love product placement? Live in New York? Coming soon, the Big Apple is one of a handful of cities that will screen Morgan Spurlock's documentary, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Curiously, and probably to Pom Wonderful's dismay, the deal Spurlock struck with the pomegranate-based brand to name the film Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold has not translated, so far, to theater promotions.

Does this somehow void the deal? Who knows. Maybe Spurlock will fill us in when we finally get that interview he promised us.

In the meantime, what's new in product placement in the US and beyond?Continue reading...

The Sundance Film Festival kicked off last week with news that Morgan Spurlock's new documentary — The Greatest Movie Ever Sold — had sold.

In fact, it sold itself many times over: first and foremost to POM Wonderful for title sponsorship; to Sony, which will distribute it; and to the other brands who agreed to underwrite Spurlock's film in return for being featured placing their products as part of the film.

It all means that Sony will distribute the documentary in April under its new title — POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. The bigger question, as Spurlock seeks to sell out much in the way he intended to blimp out with his McDonald's-skewering Super Size Me documentary in 2004: who got bought and who got sold? And can such a cynical exercise really show how branding and product placement work?Continue reading...

The Sundance Film Festival kicked off today with its first big sale. Sony Pictures Classics bought director Morgan Spurlock's latest project: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, a documentary about product placement and corporate sponsorship funded by product placement and corporate sponsorship.

The film is slated for North American release in April. The method director, best known for his 30-day McDonald's diet experiment that formed the basis of Super Size Me, quips, "I have funded this entire film with money from some pretty straight-laced companies, and the end result will surely make you laugh all the way to therapy."Continue reading...