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MORGAN SPURLOCK: Everywhere you look these days,

it seems like someone's trying to sell you something.

On billboards, posters, stickers,

elevators, gas pumps, airplanes,

cups, napkins, coffee holders, wire hangers.

Even bathrooms.

See, it used to be that when someone

really wanted to sell you something,

they could rely on the good old fashioned 30-second TV spot.

He likes it! Hey, Mikey!

But thanks to the invention of this...

And this...

There's a revolution going on called "Internet."

Fewer and fewer of us are actually sitting through these.

Anything is possible

when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady.

So how's a poor, struggling multimillion-dollar corporation

supposed to let you know they even exist?

Hey, welcome to Morning Joe, brewed by Starbucks!

We do have a special guest.

Excuse me, I'm just going to have a sip here of my Starbucks.

Mmm. Mmm. There you go.

Welcome to the brave new world of brand integration.

But you may know it by its old school name...

Converse All Stars, vintage 2004.

...product placement.

MAN: You can use a Guinness.

SPURLOCK: Today product placement is a multibillion dollar industry

that generates hard cash for movies,

creates new identities for brands,

but most importantly, delivers the holy grail of marketing, co-promotion.

You see, co-promotion is what takes a regular movie

and turns it into a blockbuster.

Take Iron Man.

That movie had more than 14 brand partners.

Everything from a Whiplash Whopper, to Iron Man Dr. Pepper cans,

to Tony Stark himself driving off in an Audi commercial.

These types of partnerships

deliver millions of dollars of free advertising for the movie

while also raising visibility for the companies themselves.

But do all these co-promotions actually work?

Do they have that much influence over the choices we make?

Does Shrek make me want to take a Royal Caribbean Cruise

or Burger King make me wanna go see Twilight?

Is the only thing missing from my movie achieving Iron Man status

a little co-promotion?

Well, if that's true,

then I can't wait to get some of that sweet Hollywood ad money.

Last year more than $412 billion were spent on marketing and advertising.

And out of that $412 billion,

just four companies controlled over 75% of it.

If I'm gonna make a doc-buster,

it seems like these companies are a great place to start.

So what I wanna do,

is make a film all about product placement marketing and advertising,

where the entire film is funded

by product placement, marketing, and advertising.

So the movie will be called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

So what happens in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

is that everything from top to bottom, start to finish,

is branded from beginning to end.

You know, from the above-the-title sponsor that you'll see in the movie

which is brand X.

Now this brand, the Qualcomm Stadium, the Staples Center...

These people will be married to the film in perpetuity, forever.

Mmm.

So the film explores this whole idea... It's redundant.

It's what? It's redundant.

In perpetuity forever? I'm a redundant person.

I'm just saying... (LAUGHS)

That was more for him. It's in perpetuity, period, forever.

SPURLOCK: But not only are we going to have the brand X title sponsor,

but we're gonna make it so we can sell out

every category we can in the film.

So maybe we sell a shoe,

and it becomes "The Greatest Shoe You Ever Wore."

"The Greatest Car You Ever Drove"'

from The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

You know, "The Greatest Drink You've Ever Had"

courtesy, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

So the idea is beyond just showing that brands are part of your life,

but actually get them to finance the film. Is that it?

Get them to finance the film

and actually we show the whole process of, "How does it work?"

The goal of this whole film is transparency.

You're going to see the whole thing take place in this movie.

So that's the whole concept. The whole film, start to finish.

And I would love for CEG to help make it happen.

Hey, you know, it's funny 'cause when I first hear it,

it is the ultimate respect for an audience.

I don't know how receptive people are going to be to it, though.

Do you have a perspective, or...

I don't want to use "angle" cause that sort of has a negative connotation...

Do you know how this is going to play out?

SPURLOCK: No idea.

How much money does it take to do this?

$1.5 million. MAN: $1.5 million.

Okay.

I think you're going to have a hard time meeting with them,

but I think it's certainly worth pursuing

a couple of really big, obvious brands.

Who knows?

Maybe, by the time your film comes out

we look like a bunch of blithering idiots.

What do you think the response is going to be?

(STAMMERS) The responses mostly will be no.

SPURLOCK: But is the toughest sell because of the film

or is the toughest sell because of me?

Uh, both.

That meeting, not so optimistic.

So can you help me? I need help.

I can help you.

Good. Good.

Awesome. (LAUGHS)

We got to figure out which brands.

Yeah.

That's the challenge.

When you look at the people you deal with, or...

We've got some places we can go.

Okay. Okay.

Turn the camera off.

SPURLOCK: I thought "turn the camera off" meant

"let's have an off-the-record conversation."

Turns out, it really means, "We want nothing to do with your movie."

Luckily, I've got an old friend in the industry

who might be a bit more receptive.

Richard Kirshenbaum has worked in advertising for years

and has made a name for himself and his agency

by not thinking like an agency.

If anyone out there is going to get it, it's him.

So ultimately what we want to try and do,

is create what is the Iron Man of documentaries.

The documentary that when it comes out, has so many partners

has so many brands involved...

I love the idea that you're actually

selling out, you're admitting selling out...

JON BOND: And therefore not selling out.

And therefore not selling out.

It's genius.

And the story, also, is talking to people

who say this is a problem with the industry, this is wrong.

But then there's people who are like, "How could it be wrong?

"It's where we started in television.

"It's where we started in film."

So the film is about the marketing of movies.

And I want to be a sponsor.

You guys can tell me better than anyone else

what the, kind of like, "Here's what we pay you for these things."

And so you start to see these things come to fruition

over the course of the film. KIRSHENBAUM: Right.

So you're willing to sell out completely, personally, to do this?

Whatever it takes. Great.

So what do we do now?

I think the thing to do is go get a client.

(LAUGHS) Get one.

Thank you. Great to see you.

This is going to be fun. Yeah, thanks, guys.

SPURLOCK: To get my first client, I need to understand two things.

Who would actually sponsor this movie?

And how I'm supposed to talk to them.

Britt Johnson is the president of Media Placement,

one of the most successful product placement agencies in the country.

And David Wales is the president of the Ministry of Culture

and makes his living predicting the next big trends in advertising.

If we were going out to sell somebody

to be a product or brand in the film,

what's that worth?

It depends on how many people you reach.

Dozens.

Dozens? (LAUGHS)

This movie is going to reach dozens of people.

It would depend how many people you reach.

How do I figure out who I should go after?

I would just go for everybody.

As long as the check clears.

Yeah, as long as the check clears.

The one good thing is,

you might be able to get a lot of the things paid for.

That's a good question.

What are the things we should be looking for

to try and get for free?

I think you might be able to get a beer brand.

Hotels, air service, computers, car.

You definitely should have a sports car.

What about clothing?

Yeah! Clothing? Can you get clothing?

Yeah, clothing would be easy.

How do I make a company want to be in this movie?

You start by acknowledging that you yourself are a brand. Right?

What's your brand collateral? What are you bringing to the table?

I guess that's what you need to figure out

in terms of making yourself appealing to them.

How would you guys describe your brand?

Um. My brand?

I don't know like...

I like really nice clothes.

'80s revival meets skater punk.

Unless it's laundry day.

The brand that I am is... I would call it "Casual Fly."

If Dan were a brand,

he might be a classic convertible Mercedes-Benz.

Part hippie, part yogi, part Brooklyn girl? I don't know.

Failed writer, alcoholic brand?

(LAUGHS) Is that something?

SPURLOCK: I think most of Hollywood has that brand covered.

For me to get any companies on board,

I first need to understand what I'm offering them.

That's where Olson Zaltman comes in.

By using an intense form of psychoanalysis,

they've helped companies like Hallmark, Nestlé, and Febreze

better understand what they call their brand personality.

You brought your pictures, right? I did.

The very first picture, is a picture of my family.

So tell me about how it relates

to your thoughts and feelings about who you are.

These are the people who

shaped the way I look at the world.

Tell me about this world.

I think your world is the world that you live in.

The people that are around you, your friends, your family.

The way you live your life, the job you do.

All those things stemmed and started from one place.

And for me, they stemmed and started

with my family in West Virginia.

What's the next one you wanna talk about?

The next one... This was the best day ever.

How does this relate to your thoughts and feelings about who you are?

It's like, "Who do I wanna be?"

I like things that are different. I like things that are weird.

(LAUGHING) I like weird things.

Tell me about the "why" phase. What does that do for us?

What is the machete? What pupa stage are you in now?

Why is it important to reboot? What does the red represent...

Tell me a little bit about that harp.

What is it about you that's not who you are?

(ABIGAIL's SPEECH OVERLAPPING)

(MOCK SCREAMS)

Thank you. Yeah, thanks for your patience.

Great job. Thanks a lot. All right.

Yeah, I don't know what's going to come of this.

There was a whole lot

of crazy going on in there.

The first thing we saw

was this idea that you had two distinct but complementary sides

to your brand personality.

The Morgan Spurlock brand is a mindful play brand.

Those are juxtaposed very nicely together,

and I think there's almost a paradox with those.

And I think some companies will just focus on one of their strengths

or the other, instead of focusing on both.

Most companies tend to, and it's human nature,

to avoid things that they are not sure of, avoid fear,

those elements, and you really embrace those.

And you actually turn them into positives for you. It's a neat thing to see.

What other brands are like that?

The first one here is a classic, Apple.

And you can see here, Target, Wii,

MINI from Mini Coopers, and JetBlue.

Now there's playful brands and mindful brands.

Those sorts of things that have come and gone,

but a playful mindful brand is a pretty powerful thing.

Awesome.

That's good. That's a good thing.

Now that I know what type of brand personality I have

it's time to figure out what other companies

would want to be in business with someone

as mindful and playful as myself.

Time for a little brand recon.

(DIALING PHONE)

Nothing like a cold call

to show exactly how little power you have.

This movie is brought to you by Apple Zings.

Crisco. Kenneth Cole. Prada. Paul Smith.

OPERATOR 1: Welcome to the Johnson & Johnson Company's world headquarters.

OPERATOR 2: Starbucks Coffee?

OPERATOR 3: Thanks for calling Target Corporation.

Ben & Jerry's.

Licefreee!

Carmex.

This film is brought to you by B complex.

(WOMAN 1 ON PHONE)

Documentaries are not as seen as feature films.

(WOMAN 2 ON PHONE)

I can't do it. I'm the Director of Public Relations for Guess.

We will never put Morgan, your average Joe, on a billboard, ever.

(MAN ON PHONE)

You're making a film about that? OK.

I am.

We would love it for JetBlue to be the official airline.

What is the greatest car you could drive?

I think it's got to be a Ford.

The Volkswagen.

The Lexus hybrid being the official car.

BlackBerry phone.

Seventh Generation.

Huge fan of Fluevogs.

We got a fax from Volkswagen.

"It is my understanding that you discussed with our agent,

"DDB Entertainment International,

"the possibility of our involvement

"in an upcoming documentary film directed by Morgan Spurlock

"that will explore product placement in the movies.

"After due consideration,

"Volkswagen Group of America Incorporated and DDB

"have determined that it is not in Volkswagen's best interest

"to be involved in this documentary in any manner. In any manner."

Diet Coke. Levi's.

Be stupid, Diesel.

(MAN 1 ON PHONE)

It's not something that we do.

SPURLOCK: Think how great it would be.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold video game.

(WOMAN 1 ON PHONE)

We're just unable to participate.

SPURLOCK: What about if in the film, we had either a cowboy

or an animated camel smoking your brand?

(MAN 2 ON PHONE)

My... My response is, we really don't wanna be in the film.

(MAN 3 ON PHONE)

I mean, it doesn't sound like a movie that I would be excited about going to.

Right. So why wouldn't you want to go see this movie?

(WOMAN 2 ON PHONE)

It goes against everything that we do.

What if we loaded it with nudity?

(MAN 4 ON PHONE)

Yes, that would help.

Indian Vegetable Korma.

The official grandpa slipper.

(MAN 5 ON PHONE)

I've got too many other things to think about.

Can we please get Mane 'n Tail to be the sponsor?

(LAUGHING)

If it's good enough for your horse, it's good enough for you.

Mane 'n Tail.

(LAUGHING) I want this. This is the best.

You gotta love a product that says, "Directions for human use."

And then, it says, "Directions for animal use."

Mmm.

Smells like a pretty horse.

We're calling Mane 'n Tail.

(ON VOICEMAIL) Hey, Morgan, it's Richard. I've got some great news.

It looks like we have a client who would love to hear your pitch.

Give me a call back.

It's our first big pitch, with a real brand.

Richard Kirshenbaum hooked the whole thing up

with one of his clients.

So this is it. It's on! It's real right now.

I want to introduce you to Morgan.

I want to introduce you to Morgan.

Hi.

Hi, how are you? I'm Morgan Spurlock. Beth Jones.

I have friends who make great, big, giant Hollywood films

and I have friends who make little independent films like I make.

And the friends of mine who make big giant Hollywood movies

say that the reason their films are so successful

is because of the brand partners that they have.

And then my friends who make small independent films say,

"Well how are we supposed to compete

"with these big, giant Hollywood movies?"

And the movie is called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

So now how specifically will we see Ban in the film?

See anytime I'm getting ready to go,

anytime I open my medicine cabinet,

you will see Ban Deodorant.

While anytime I do an interview with someone,

I can say, "Are you fresh enough for this interview?

"Are you ready? You look a little nervous.

"I want to help you calm down, so maybe you should...

"Maybe you should put some on before the interview."

So we'll offer one of these fabulous scents.

Whether it's a Floral Fusion or Paradise Winds,

they'll have their chance.

We'll have them geared for both male or female,

solid roll-on or stick, or whatever it may be.

That's the two-cent tour.

So now I can answer any of your questions

and give you the five-cent tour.

We are a smaller brand,

much like you talked about being a smaller movie.

We're very much a challenger brand

so we don't have the budgets that other brands have.

So doing things like this, remind people about Ban,

is why we're interested in it.

What are the words you would use to describe Ban?

Ban is blank.

That's a great question.

Uh.

Ban is superior technology.

Technology's not the way you want to describe

something somebody's putting in their armpit.

We talk about bold. Fresh.

I think fresh is a great word that really

spins this category into the positive

versus the "fights odor and wetness."

It keeps you fresh.

How do we keep you fresher longer?

Better freshness, more freshness.

Three times fresher.

Things like that that are, you know, more of that positive benefit.

When it comes down to cost and things like that,

do we have to have a sideline conversation about that?

About what things will cost in this film, or what?

Yeah, to participate.

No, we can talk about it now.

Okay. What do you project?

We're trying to sell the above-the-title sponsorship,

the naming rights for a million dollars.

All the way down to brand partners

who will come in for anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000.

What about concerns that you would have,

or things that you would be worried about?

You have a somewhat controversial reputation.

How can you assure us that it'll be done in a positive light?

I think, when it comes to all of the brand partners...

Like the way that Ban will be portrayed in the film will be...

There's no way I would disparage Ban

because, again, at the end of the day you are my partner.

I think that was the main concern. JONES: Yeah.

I don't know that we have...

We're pretty excited about it.

Is there a number that you guys want to hit

that's the amount you'd want to commit to something like this?

I think in that 50-range. I think you were talking...

Amazing! That's great. Great to meet you.

Great to meet you.

Great meeting you. Great presentation.

Thank you.

We're really looking forward to it.

One down, about 15 to go.

But I mean, as they say,

(SNIFFING)

Smells like a brand new day.

With Ban on board,

Richard thought I should talk to an old lawyer friend of his.

That way, I know exactly what I can promise folks,

not to mention, what I can and can't say about them.

Hey, Rick? Yes.

Hi. I'm Morgan Spurlock.

Hi. Nice to see you.

Good to see you. How've you been? Good.

Richard called you, told you about the film we're about to make

and we need some real legal advice.

We're making a movie called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

The most important question,

what's going to keep me from getting sued in making this movie?

I think you'll probably be okay

because the whole set up of the film establishes the context.

So I can say something's the "greatest" and not have an issue with it?

Yes.

Film can be a documentary, in which case everything should be real,

and film can be completely fiction.

And most commercials, most advertising is slice of life,

it's completely fictional.

The flip side of that, we sometimes call "faction."

So wait. What's "faction"?

Faction is when you've combined documentary,

or factual, or historical information with speculation or fiction.

Where you've got a mix of fact

and then something that you as a director,

or an author writing a book,

really has an obligation to indicate to the audience

what is the historical fact and what is the speculation

in a typical work of faction.

If I say that these are the greatest sunglasses anybody could ever wear,

in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Can I... On the inverse,

can I say that every other sunglasses

are the worst sunglasses ever made?

You know, if you're saying everything

that's a sponsor is the greatest

and everything else is trash,

people seeing the film are going to get that you're making a point

and that it's not a personal endorsement.

So, you're a very powerful attorney here in New York City.

You're a partner in the firm.

So how much did this hour just cost me?

(LAUGHING)

My rate's $770 an hour.

But, advertising has its value so this is advertising for me.

So the question is how much does it cost me to be in your movie?

SPURLOCK: All the big Hollywood blockbusters have

tie-ins with fast food restaurants.

Cups, toys, you name it.

None of those guys would call me back.

But I did find one Central Pennsylvania staple

who thought this could be right up their alley.

They were so excited they even flew me to their offices

in their private plane.

As I said, I am a fan of Sheetz.

I love Sheetz.

Are you blowing sunshine up our ass?

I am.

Okay. In a great way.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Shameless marketing.

More shameless plugs, that's what we want to do for Sheetz.

We're going to be traveling around talking

about the impact of product placement, marketing and advertising,

talking to people along the way.

And where better to talk to people,

than at a Sheetz? STAN: True.

At a gas pump.

I want to hear people, what they think about products.

What do they think about Sheetz?

And again, when we're going to interview people

we wanna make sure we interview people

right inside of a Sheetz location.

We want to sit down and have interviews with someone who...

Have a sandwich.

Yeah, we'll have a sandwich.

Here I am enjoying a meatball sub talking to this gentleman.

We're talking about product placement.

And so maybe we'll talk to somebody

who's against product placement,

who's against advertising, against marketing in films.

We'll talk to them inside of a Sheetz.

While they have the product in their hand.

Of course. That's the best part.

Cool. All right, yeah.

And for me, what I'm really excited about,

is to have Sheetz be the home of our collector cups.

Of course, the fleet truck, (MIMICS HONKING) for The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

There's the cup where you'll get

The Greatest Floozie You'll Ever Drink.

Right inside there.

And of course, "Holy Sheetz, I can't believe how many choices there are!"

"Collect all four at your Sheetz."

See? First time ever, documentary with collector cups.

They're going to be on that like a wet T-shirt.

That's right. That's big right there. That's big.

What do you think are the probability of negative press is?

Is that, like, "Here's this jerk who's making

"this horrible, horrible marketing movie

"with the assumption that Americans are idiots."

Okay? And then that's what they talk about on E! or something.

"Morgan is an idiot and he thinks all of Americans are idiots

"and all the people who sponsored this film are idiots.

"They're bigger idiots." What does that do to our brand?

This film will literally talk about this thing that is in front of all of us.

That is, literally, right there every day

and bring it home in a way that just makes us think about it,

recognize it. I don't think people will look at you like you're stupid.

I think people will look at you like,

"These people were brave enough

"to be a part of this because they're not afraid of their brand."

Is there a plot?

Or is it just shameless marketing?

No. The plot is literally me trying to find the people to support a film like this,

that talks about the topic. This is the... This is the movie right now.

This is it. It's happening.

Is there a base number, though,

of what you guys are comfortable saying,

"We'll commit to this"? Yes.

A hundred. We had said we'd commit to 100 as a base.

Thank you. It was a pleasure.

It was a pleasure to meet you.

STAN: Can we take these mics off?

Couldn't have gone any better than that I don't think.

Or maybe it could have.

I don't know if he's blowing sunshine up our ass

trying to get money out of us, or...

You know, I mean, what's going on here?

This is all about marketing, you know what I mean?

Are we really friends yet?

I don't know if we're friends yet.

SPURLOCK: Meanwhile, on the other side of the country,

I think I may have finally found a drink sponsor.

It's not Coke or Pepsi. They wouldn't call me back either.

It turns out, though, that POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice

is filled with antioxidants, is apparently 40% as effective as Viagra,

and is a multimillion dollar corporation

that takes a unique approach to marketing.

The way that I wanna see POM, or when we first see POM in the movie,

or find out you are on, is we get the call.

Maybe you guys are gonna be in, "We're gonna do it.

"We wanna be the official beverage."

And so then every other beverage in the movie is blurred out.

(LAUGHING)

We will never see another beverage in the movie.

Every other thing will start to become blurry except for POM.

There's been all those times where

there's been product placement in movies

and integration. We want to take it one step further

where we want to be the first movie ever

to actually have 30-second commercials

right in the middle of the film.

(ALL LAUGHING)

So we're gonna shoot commercial spots.

There'll be three spots throughout the film,

as I said, our top three sponsors.

The above-the-title sponsors

and the other two which will have 30 second spots

of which POM would be a great commercial.

We have some really good ideas that we could do something with that.

There's no better marketer than NASCAR.

NASCAR does a great job about showing their loyalty to brands,

showing their partners with brand sponsorships,

and one of the things they do so well is the NASCAR suit.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold needs to have a suit.

So then, when I go out and go on the late night programs,

of course I'll be wearing my Greatest Movie Ever Sold suit,

which of course will have a giant POM Wonderful logo on it.

Other sponsor logos, you know, covering it throughout.

And so that's the end.

As you can see I'm at the end of my POM bottle.

Look how happy I am.

And so we would love to have you guys be the official beverage.

What questions do you have for me? What can I answer for you?

We're an extremely high quality product

with a real brand image to uphold.

How do we know that the other sponsors you're gonna put in the film

are compatible with that?

The brands we wanna go after are the brands that really reflect

what I think the movie stands for, what I stand for.

Doing something different, doing something innovative.

We think that you represent POM in a way, and POM represents you.

We're compatible together.

So that's why I'm attracted to it.

The other thing is full transparency is very important to us.

I think it's important that people know how much we spent

to get in this movie and that we actually paid for it, because...

Why not? Do you have any concerns?

Of course. (SPURLOCK LAUGHS)

I wouldn't be a Jewish mother if I didn't have concerns.

But part of being out there and being successful is taking chances.

You know?

So this is uncharted territory, which is exciting for us.

POM was uncharted territory. Right.

So on your title card, it said "Brand X - The Greatest Movie Ever Sold."

Is Brand X what you're going to put on there or are you open to...

No, it's going to be POM Wonderful.

Is it gonna be POM Wonderful?

Well, I mean, it could be.

If we make a deal.

Now we're getting down to brass tacks.

If you want to be Brand X, which I would love for POM to be Brand X...

POM Wonderful presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

We wanna sell the above-the-title sponsorship for a million dollars.

Does a million dollars come with 100% complete satisfaction guarantee?

For me? Yes.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Talk about the amenities that the Hyatt has to offer.

(INAUDIBLE)

In the film, I'll come visit you guys

and pitch you about being in the film.

Have you ever done any product placement or anything like this?

No.

And now I'd rather know what we get? What do we get?

So, are you in? We're in.

(LAUGHS)

Mini Cooper, official car of The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Are we getting seven?

(GURGLING)

Maybe I shouldn't be celebrating just yet.

Even with all these brands signed on to the movie,

believe it or not POM just won't give me the million dollars.

For that to happen, I have to accomplish a lot of other things.

Like show on over 250 screens worldwide,

sell 500,000 downloads and DVDs,

generate more than 600 million media impressions,

and make more than $10 million at the box office.

And then there's what's in all the other contracts!

I can only stay at a Hyatt, I have to pump gas at a Sheetz,

I can only eat Amy's Pizza,

I can't disparage the entire country of Germany,

and I have to conduct an interview in one of JetBlue's aircraft.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

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 film.

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 film.

Do we have to show them the whole movie?

If they have final approval of the whole film,

yes, you'd have to show them the whole movie.

(STAMMERS) 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.

Mmm-hmm. (LAUGHS)

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 film

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 fucked 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 film 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?

(BOTH LAUGHING)

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 a 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 water's 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.

(BELL DINGS)

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 shit 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, E.R...

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, what's 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.

SPURLOCK: Brian Steinberg may hate it when product placement is too obvious,

but since I'm 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't know they're being advertised to.

Robert Weissman is the president

of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen,

and he's championing a radical way

to differentiate advertisements from entertainment.

With product placement, what do you think should be done?

In films 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

for between 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

to tell people that even in the core program,

they're being exposed to an advertisement.

(WOMAN ON PA)

Robert Weissman loooves JetBlue! Happy Jetting!

Wow, gosh, Morgan.

Pretty clever. Thanks for flying me here for that.

I guess you have more power than I thought.

SPURLOCK: While Robert may be leading the charge

to get rid of product placement,

another guy practically invented it.

In Hollywood, if you need a car, you call Norm.

If you need a beer, you call Norm.

In fact, if you need just about anything, you call one man,

Norm Marshall.

If anyone can tell me how much influence

brands are going to have over my movie, it's him.

Years ago, we represented Alka-Seltzer.

Mmm-hmm.

And we got a call from one of our friends and he said,

"Hey, the director just called a shot

"and he wants the character, it's a comedy...

"And he wants the character to chew an Alka-Seltzer tablet

"and then foam at the mouth."

We immediately jumped in the middle of it

and had a direct call to the director

who immediately started giving me some push-back and I, you know...

We couldn't resolve it,

so I called the transportation coordinator

and said, "Billy, bring all the cars back."

So Billy went to the producer and said,

"How'd you piss off Norm Marshall?"

"Well, I just was talking to him about this Alka-Seltzer thing"

"Well, he wants all his cars back."

And then he calls back and says,

"We've changed the Alka-Seltzer scene."

So those are the kinds of things

that you can't do from Madison Avenue,

or whatever, and that's how fluid the industry is,

it changes very...

On a moment. Yeah.

Who has more power and influence in Hollywood,

writers or brands?

The individual writer on the individual show, if that show is successful,

has more power than the individual brand,

but overall there is going to be a moment,

and I don't think it's very far off,

where the larger brands, meaning the larger advertisers,

can dictate to the network the conditions

under which they're prepared to advertise.

Do you guys ever recommend script changes?

Absolutely. Yeah.

Doesn't always happen, but... Right.

(DIALING PHONE)

(PHONE RINGING)

WOMAN: Thank you for calling Straight Arrow Products.

(LAUGHING)

(WHISPERING)

I've gotta try to keep a straight face.

Are you there? Hello?

Hello. Hey.

KATZEV: We just wanted to get a feel for the idea of the scene

and how you were gonna position...

For us, the whole goal

is to try and put something in there...

Products that we think that are interesting,

that could be fun, that at the same time represent an extension...

The extension of what we're trying to make with this film.

That's good, 'cause that's what we liked about it.

Because again, the image is to keep Mane 'n Tail fun.

Yeah, I completely agree, and so for me, in the scene that we wanna do,

you literally start off on a close-up of the bottle.

Like, there's the bottle.

You pull out to see here, you know, here we are in the bathtub.

I'm there washing my hair.

You pull out a little more, you see me washing my little boy's hair.

You pull out a little bit more, and as I turn to the left

and there I am washing my Shetland pony in the tub.

WOMAN: (LAUGHS) There you go! KATZEV: There you go!

It works for us.

We'll probably see a shot of it in the beginning,

maybe have something in the middle where we have a phone call

talking about the placement and then have it in the end.

Perfect.

Okay. That sounds good then.

Anything else we can answer for you guys right now?

No, that was just the concern.

I wanted to hear exactly what you guys were gonna be doing with it

in the scenes and that's about it.

We've been a genuine company for the past 40 years.

Right. And we do not...

And we do not just don't... Hey, people have fun with us.

They enjoy us. We have a well-rounded good will

between our equine business and our human side.

I mean, this is truly a rare product

in the fact that it's crossed-over as successful as it has.

I completely agree.

And it still continues to be used by horse and people

so that will...

And this is a worldwide product,

so we try to keep it fun and protect it.

Well, guys, this is gonna be great. Thank you so much,

and I'm so glad you guys want to be in the movie.

No, thank you for taking the time with us.

I'm glad you liked the product.

It's my pleasure, thank you, guys. All right. Bye-bye. Thanks.

Bye. WOMAN: Bye-bye.

Awesome!

The official shampoo of The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Mane 'n Tail.

My concern is storytelling, not story-selling.

And I don't want to be someone

who's trying shove a product down someone's throat.

I'm trying to make people believe these characters are real.

I've never been told, you know,

"Have them hold it a little bit higher,

"and get a little bit closer to his face."

I've never been told that.

Until I started directing movies,

I didn't realize how it worked.

And then two guys in suits come down to the set

with a product and, like,

"Yeah, you need to use this in the scene."

I'm like, "What are you talking about?"

I haven't done that much product placement in my movies

because, for the most part, I've actually been usually refused.

If I wanna use...

I think all my first scripts

always had some scene that took place at a Denny's.

Because I had many scenes in my early 20s that took place at a Denny's.

And Reservoir Dogs,

in the original script, the opening scene

where they're all talking, at a Denny's.

All right, the opening scene in Pulp Fiction,

Pumpkin and Honey Bunny at a Denny's.

Yeah. In both cases, Denny's goes, "No!"

Truthfully, I don't ever notice it unless it's super obvious.

And then when it's super obvious,

it becomes ridiculously obvious

and then it can break the reality.

Pardon me? SPURLOCK: Is it advertising?

Oh, fuck yeah.

It's the movie business.

And the game now is, "How cheap can you make that movie?"

And "How much profit can you make?"

SPURLOCK: For a long time, people would say

there's a line between art and commerce.

Is that line just getting thinner and thinner?

There are still very, very powerful and very talented artists

musically and in film.

Like, bands like Radiohead, filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson,

who are clearly not interested in this.

Artistic integrity, whatever.

I mean, you know, how do you tell the story you intended to tell

without compromising?

Yes. There's a bit of compromise,

but, like I said, if there's a car in a movie,

why not be a car that a brand is helping reach your budget?

Do you think it's selling out?

To who? We're all selling out.

GE is my boss, really, okay?

They build jet engines and weapons systems

and all kinds of crazy electronic appliances

and they don't give a flying fuck about art.

So we have three spots that we're gonna look at.

The first one looks at the healthful aspects

of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice.

Where you see me right there in the middle of a pomegranate field.

There's only one problem. You can't shoot that spot

because there are no pomegranates on the trees.

Did we miss the season? Isn't it in May?

Oh, yeah. We missed it.

So, this spot is called "POM on My Mind."

I come out of the gym, it's hot in the city. I rub my eyes.

As I look back out, everything in the world has this red tint to it.

As I walk down the street, I pass a donut shop,

where all the donuts are stacked one on top of the other.

And I just look at that, it's a little weird, and I walk past a fruit stand

where all the apples are all stacked one on top of the other.

What is going on? What alterior universe is this?

Suddenly, all the women that I see...

(ALL LAUGHING)

All of their breasts are like this double stacked uni-boob

in the middle of their chest. I open up the fridge,

there's what I want.

Ah!

Then, it's POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice. Getcha Some.

Then all of a sudden I hear "Woof"

and I look down, and there's my dog,

looking up at me with two heads,

as he turns his heads, and then that's the spot.

It doesn't talk about our product attributes as much as the other one does.

Yeah, yeah. It plays to the icon of the bottle,

but right, doesn't talk about what's inside.

This spot starts off with me popping up into the camera

and I tap onto the lens.

(MIMICS TAPPING SOUND)

And it's like, literally it's a close-up right on my face.

And the camera starts pulling out.

And I go, "Psst! I wanna tell you a secret.

"This is just between me and you, okay?

"But I drink POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice.

"All right?" Now, the camera keeps pulling back.

"Now, not only is it loaded with antioxidants,

"but it also improves blood flow and increases prostate health.

"But, get this.

"50% of men with mild erectile dysfunction experience stronger erections

"after drinking it for only four weeks."

And the camera keeps pulling back, keeps pulling back.

And I say, "Now who wouldn't want that."

And there I am standing with a giant erection.

POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice.

We'll be running that on TV.

TUPPER: (LAUGHS) Yeah...

I'm sure the FDA would love that one.

This is a great campaign.

This campaign on the web would get you more attention

than you ever knew what to do with.

It could potentially turn off some existing customers, no?

Maybe, I don't know.

I think you could be a little more subtle about it.

From a commercial standpoint,

do you want us to come up with other concepts?

Wouldn't it be interesting if we took the Minute Maid example?

Their juice has mainly apple juice.

Ours is 100% Pomegranate juice and theirs is one-third of 1%.

Wow. I wonder what you could do

with the content Lynda presented in an advertising campaign.

Yes. We would be very happy if you could.

Okay. I'll go back to New York and I'll get to work on a new spot.

All right. Great! Okay, great. Thanks, guys.

Thanks for your time.

So,

just had every idea that I went in to pitch get shot down in the room.

One, after the other, after the other.

And then had them basically tell me what they want me to pitch

which is basically their own takedown piece of every competitor they have.

See part of this... Part of this movie is, which is awesome,

is getting to see the inner-workings of all this stuff happening.

But the other part of it, is like...

At what part...

At what part do I let myself completely become a foil

to do everybody else's bidding, you know?

Is there such a thing as truth in advertising?

Yes.

Advertisements that say they're lying are telling the truth.

What are some examples of the most egregious offenders

of commercials or brands or products that mislead you?

I have a lot in my memory,

but I lather them with amnesia

because they're so disgusting.

Remember how we talked about eating better?

Well, it starts today.

What's deceptive about advertising is the answer that it gives

to how we can be happy.

The answer that it gives is that somehow,

products are connected to our sense of well-being

and to our sense of happiness.

And I think that is kind of, the ultimate lie.

'Cause what makes us happy is not the products.

What makes us happy is what the products are seen as a conduit to.

The whole spectacle is constantly telling you that you're nothing.

You're nothing. You're inadequate.

You're a loser. You're ugly. You're stupid.

Unless you buy this thing.

Now, how long does the feeling of contentment

you're supposed to get from that thing,

how long does that really last,

assuming it even happens at all?

It doesn't last. There is no such contentment.

You can't really be happy

because of some purchase like that.

So advertising tells us a great deal.

Advertising tells us something very real about where people are.

It's just that it's been disconnected from how to achieve it.

The truth in advertising is a big thing people keep talking about.

Is there truth in advertising? Can we trust what the ads say?

Bigger thing is, can you trust what regular people say?

Take that fish right there.

That fish is Nemo 2.

Nemo 1 died in a terrible drowning accident, apparently, in his own bowl,

a few days ago.

So while my little boy was still asleep, I came downstairs,

fished him out, flushed him down the toilet, went to the pet store,

got another one as close to the exact color as I could recollect...

Nemo 2.

How long can I keep this going

until my son actually realizes that it's not the same Nemo?

I don't know.

Truth in advertising.

Is there truth in advertising?

Yeah, I think there's some.

Truth to me, honesty, integrity, character. Just be real about it.

No robbery without a gun.

There's some honest advertising out there. There is.

It does exist, and that's cool.

But I just don't like stuff that lies.

There is definitely truth in advertising.

You just have to gloss it a little bit

to make people want to hear it.

When you read the labels, the ingredients labels on food products

and if you have any knowledge of what the stuff is that's in there,

it's shocking.

When you look at a juice bottle that says 100%,

100% what?

They think it's 100% real juice,

and it's not, it's only 10% juice

and they buy it and drink it and they think

they're drinking something healthy,

but it's not. That's offensive to me.

SPURLOCK: Check the label. That's what they tell us to do when we go shopping.

But how much of what's on the label can we really believe?

Take this juice. Label has a giant picture of a pomegranate on it,

blueberries front and center. Must be filled with all that good stuff, right?

Well, guess again.

99% of this juice is apple and grape.

So how much pomegranate and blueberry is in it?

Less than 1%.

That's why I drink POM Wonderful.

It's 100% pomegranate juice.

You'd have to drink 90 of these, that's 80,000 calories

to get the same amount of pomegranate juice that's in just one of these.

Check the label on that one.

POM Wonderful. Get Real.

Hello sir. Good morning.

Welcome to Grand Hyatt Hotel, Sao Paulo.

Thank you very much.

As a diamond member, you have automatically

an upgrade to our executive rooms.

After flying all night, I'm ready for a little sleepy time.

Sao Paulo is one of the largest cities in the Western Hemisphere.

And recently they've done something radical.

Passing a bill outlawing all outdoor advertising.

No billboards. No banners, no posters. Nothing.

Mayor Gilberto Kassab passed the bill into law.

And Regina Monteiro, the director for urban planning of the city

was the one who originally came up with the idea.

What was the inspiration for the clean city law?

(IN PORTUGUESE)

People became more and more aware

that the pollution in Sao Paulo

was one of its main problems.

And by "pollution" we not only mean air, water, or sound,

but also visual pollution.

We could no longer see the city.

We were just reading and reading.

I try to do things to change the city

so that Sao Paulo can be seen in the world

as something different since it does not have natural beauty.

It needs something else

so that people can sense it as something special.

Research has shown positive feedback from 90% of the city.

Great.

Thank you very much.

So what was the city like before the ban?

(IN PORTUGUESE)

There were billboards all over the place.

It would make people confused.

The absence of outdoor advertising has allowed us to see more of nature.

Everything is much clearer.

We are now able to focus on things that we want to see and admire,

without having other strong images deviating our focus all the time.

So this is the biggest shopping street in the middle of Sao Paulo.

The question is, if suddenly all the advertising goes away,

how has their business been affected?

So, we're gonna find out from some of these shop-owners what's up.

So how do people know about your business if you don't advertise?

Well, by Internet, by mouth to mouth.

Is there such a... Yeah.

Word of mouth? Yeah.

Word of mouth?

Word of mouth. Yeah, that's it.

Did the way you advertise to get customers

change from before the ban to now?

(IN PORTUGUESE)

You have to change the whole structure of the business.

Today we work instead of investing in advertising,

to have something that attracts the customer.

Our job is to look for referrals.

Not one ad on that taxi. Did you see that?

No ads on the taxis. No ads on the buses.

There's no ads on the buildings.

It's amazing.

You might not need traditional advertising in Sao Paulo

but in this country, I still need to generate 600 million media impressions.

To achieve that my movie's going to need

one pretty inspired ad campaign.

Tony Seiniger is a Hollywood legend,

having pretty much invented the blockbuster.

And Peter Bemis is responsible for some of the most iconic movie posters today.

If anyone can give me some of that Hollywood marketing magic,

it's these guys.

Being of a certain age, I remember The Greatest Story Ever Told,

the story of Jesus.

When was that movie made, mid-60s, right? Yeah.

The first exercise I went through mentally and creatively,

was to go and do religious take-offs, right?

Which, I think, the blasphemy at least gets you some ink, okay?

The first comp

will be you, Morgan.

(PEOPLE LAUGHING)

Only you.

I've always wanted to rip this off.

He's always wanted to rip off The Last Supper.

Rip off The Last Supper, all right?

So I figure...

This would be you and you've just got a big...

That's pretty fantastic.

SEINIGER: There you are, you're like this.

You put everybody who was iconographic of commercialism

as the disciples coming in on you.

So, it's like the Oscar.

Yeah.

And in fact, your legs would be posed,

but not so close that my friends at the Academy would sue us all.

This is you, carrying the cross

that is covered with stickers like a NASCAR.

(SPURLOCK LAUGHING)

That's as sick as it gets.

Let's start with these six and we'll trim from there.

Good, okay. In terms of title treatments,

these are both good ways to go. Yes.

You should think about it,

talk about it and then we'll all talk.

These should be underground, right?

That's a great...

You're talking about wild posting, right? Yeah.

Wild post these.

Yeah, exactly.

You put those up in New York. Like real street art, you know?

A studio would go, "No...way."

I'm not touching them.

I'm not going anywhere near that.

I think everything is so spot on. It's awesome.

Amazing.

What a great client.

Thank you. All right.

SPURLOCK: As important and great as an iconic poster is,

what's even more vital to a film's success is its trailer.

Using a new technique called neuromarketing,

Martin Lindstrom believes he's unlocked the secret

to creating a memorable one each time.

Trailers are now more and more produced

in Los Angeles based on neuromarketing.

A trailer is deadly important for the survival of your movie.

Now what do you do to create the best scene?

What you have to find out is when is the emotional peak.

The highs and the lows.

How do you create such an engaging story

that people just have to see it.

And that's exactly what's happening now.

So they're typically testing five different trailers for each of the movies,

the larger movies, and figuring out

which one is the most emotionally engaging,

which one is creating the most curiosity,

if it's a science fiction movie,

which one is creating the most fear, and so forth.

Is this whole thing, because it sounds a bit crazy,

but is neuromarketing evil?

It's like anything else.

At the end of the day, there will be people abusing it.

Which is the reason why it's fantastic

that you now dare to go through it

and experiment like this to show what really goes on.

SPURLOCK: To show how successful his technique is

Martin is putting me through a typical neuromarketing test,

strapping me down to an MRI and blasting my head with commercials.

Remember that scene in A Clockwork Orange?

It's kind of like that.

LINDSTROM: There is three things we're going to look at right now.

One is fear.

One is craving.

And one is sex.

Fear, craving, sex.

Fear, craving, sex.

Fear, craving. Fear, craving, sex. Fear, craving, sex.

Fear, craving. Fear, craving, sex. Fear, craving, sex.

You may be dizzy, so just sit for a minute, okay?

(GROANS) Oh!

Phew!

Like, in between each one of the breaks, I would doze off

and literally, I would dream, like in a commercial.

Like, the dreams would play out almost in a 30 second commercial.

It was kind of weird.

This is my brain? This is your brain.

This is my brain on commercials. Right.

Let's take a look at the results. This is your brain.

There's an amazing amount of brain activity going on.

Did you feel like you wanted to have a Coke after the scanning session?

I would have liked to have had a Coke after the scanning session.

Because I remember, you actually said that as you left the studio

and I want to tell you why. Take a look at this.

Okay.

Basically, the red/yellow area

shows that you are highly engaged

and there's a lot of activity going on.

And not only that, we can see you so emotionally engaged

that something else is happening.

The amygdala was also activated.

This is actually an area responsible for two activities.

One is fear and the other one is the release

of a neuro-transmitter called Dopamine.

And guess what?

You got a release of Dopamine when you saw the Coca-Cola ad.

You actually wanted to have it.

This is addiction.

This is not anything else. This is addiction.

And this is really the reason why neuromarketing is happening now

because there's no way you could explain that to me

when I was interviewing just after watching the commercial, right?

Yeah, no way.

Do you think that by doing stuff like this

you're manipulating consumers to make a choice?

Let's get one thing right, advertising, as a concept, is manipulation.

But don't be fooled, because if you go into a retail store

and you think you're safe, that's the point where you're most volatile,

or you're the most vulnerable in the whole process.

(EXHALES)

Where should I be able to go where I don't see one bit of advertising?

To sleep.

That's what it's coming down to.

It affords no limits.

And that's the nature of the commercial instinct.

It doesn't know boundaries. It doesn't know limits.

It goes into areas that should be taboo

like commercializing childhood.

Corporations are raising our children.

McDonalds feeds them. And Disney and Time Warner entertains them.

So, that's becoming a world,

which is designed to create conditioned responses just like Pavlov's dog.

We're told that what makes children happy are the things that corporations sell.

And if we immerse kids in that from birth,

then it becomes what makes them happy.

And it's not good enough to say,

"Pick up a stick and make it into a Harry Potter wand."

You have to have the "real wand."

From a young age, you're buying into this identity,

"This stuff makes me who I am."

Right. And what that does is take away from creative play.

Kids are learning about the world

based on what's best for corporations

and they can't be objective.

Now Boarding: Flight 755 To Aruba.

Whoa! Look at all the space!

BOY: I've never had so much legroom!

Arr! Lookie here!

There's a TV in every seat!

(MIMICS BEEPING)

I'm hungry. I want something to eat.

Here's some free yummy snacks!

Yummy! Yum, yum, yum, yum!

What a nice lady.

Flight attendants, prepare for takeoff.

(MIMICKING PLANE ENGINE ROARING)

Prince Dastan, have you wondered...

SPURLOCK: It's almost impossible for a film to become a blockbuster

without reaching kids.

Specifically high-school kids.

And in 1989 one of the last barriers to that audience was broken.

For the past 20 years, Channel One has been piping their news broadcasts

into more than 8,000 schools all across the country.

First up today, the topic of bullying.

In exchange for providing free televisions for each of the classrooms,

Channel One shows their broadcasts

for 12 minutes a day every school day

and reaches 6 million of one of the nation's most coveted demographics.

And because of that, Channel One gets to charge a premium.

Each 30 second TV spot can cost upwards of $200,000.

As much as a primetime TV show.

SPURLOCK: Why do you think there are commercials in there?

All of the commercials are so like, of course they would do them for teens.

Thank you so much for that acne commercial

I don't mind it,

because they're just pounding information

into you the whole time, the whole news broadcast

so that's like a break, turn,

talk to your friend for a little bit.

Like, we're here to learn, not to buy, in my opinion.

Some writer during the late 1800s said

that schools should teach you how to think, not what to think.

But I think that advertising is really trying to tell you what to think,

and so I don't think that should be in a school environment.

I feel like the amount of advertisement that we already have is enough,

so if you added any more, it would just be ridiculous.

I don't want to have our school name changed to "Red Bull High."

SPURLOCK: Sure, who'd wanna go to Red Bull High?

But The Greatest Movie Ever Sold High? That sounds like a winner.

You see, these days, every major brand

is dying to get their name on a building or a stadium.

And I may not be able to afford a stadium,

but in the cash-strapped school district of Broward County,

I may have found the next best thing.

I've been in my job for 12 years.

And I swear, eight of those 12 years, we've sat down every year

and said, "Okay, what are we cutting this year?"

Our school board is looking at every way to cut costs

that doesn't affect the classroom as they can.

And, you know, it's very hard.

I feel bad for what they have to

sit there and try and figure out what to cut

because you can't make everybody happy.

We're not allowed to do the outside of school buses.

We were looking at providing

all of our work vehicles with the possibility of putting advertising on them.

What's been the reasoning for not wanting to have it on the outsides of buses?

That's a state law. We would love to have it on the outside of buses,

but it's the state of Florida that has said "No."

It seems like with the school bus advertising,

you'd have to advertise on a ton of school buses.

Otherwise you're hitting the same kids every day.

It has to be a message. Right.

Right, because like a community college, it's great, go to college.

Right. They still do not want to do product.

Would it be more lucrative if it was products?

If they could do their 69 cent whatever in a school bus...

Yeah, yeah.

(LAUGHING)

But then, you're gonna deal with the health issues.

And with the parents that are upset that you're advertising...

Fast food. ...that stuff to their kids

when they're captive on a school bus.

Yeah.

Now, Tallahassee is cutting and cutting and cutting,

but you need to implement this program,

but we're not giving you any funding to do it.

This is a law firm. Yeah.

Met-Rx. Orthodontics.

Orthodontist.

Very applicable to high school kids.

"Call us to place your business name here for advertising."

That would be my number.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

That's pretty much it. We had some other ones up...

The banner contract is a year.

I love that it's a high school where I can

go get the home of the two-for-one tattoo.

Well, (CLEARS THROAT) I am not sure about that one.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

This is truly advertising.

Someone looks at this and they go

"Oh yeah, I saw these guys on the bus."

With all the banners that are around here and on the inside of the stadium,

how much revenue does that generate a year?

Probably under five-seven thousand dollars.

I think I'm gonna have to come back and get a banner.

All right, yeah, a couple! On the fence line?

That's a deal, we're gonna shake on that right now.

All right. It's a deal.

Good. Who do I send the contract to?

Maybe this is as big as the wrap gets.

That's still pretty big. Yeah.

Really, so that's only 75 bucks a month?

Why do you think so many people are against advertising

in school districts and in high schools

and juniors highs, elementary schools?

Well, because school is sacred.

And school is meant for learning.

But when you're in a school and your budgets are being cut...

Right. How are you going to make ends meet

without letting people go or cutting programs.

You gotta be creative. Yeah.

Right there. Yeah, right there.

As low as $75 a month.

I think it's a really great way to advertise.

I love it.

Yeah. Great. Done.

Look at that, you're two for two.

We're doing great. We're doing great.

We're on a roll now.

Now if I can just convince them to name our building.

Oh, the building would be the best thing ever. (LAUGHING)

We're gonna work on that next.

We're really gonna work on that.

Yeah.

So I'm David Laks and I work with Morgan's team

and my role here is to help facilitate interaction

between the sponsors

and all the people involved in helping

to promote The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

This is what we're doing.

This whole thing's a bit layered,

because we're selling The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,

but The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

will be selling all your products.

What's good for you is good for the movie, good for Morgan, good for us.

It's all great.

Okay, so we set ourselves some objectives.

They shouldn't be too contentious.

They begin fairly robustly, I think.

Build buzz, for the purpose of selling tickets.

The audience is no longer an audience.

It's a partner in whatever communication you choose to create.

The first two weeks in a movie are crucial.

There's a lot of reasons for this.

There's just more movies, there's more content

there's more things in the world now,

so the cultural decay rate of ideas is much, much faster.

So one of the lines we discussed

the very first time we met with Morgan and the team was "Don't sell out, sell up!"

I kind of like that. Sounds good,

not sure what it meant, but I liked it.

We wanted to extend that kind of meta-narrative

down to the audience themselves and make them involved

in the construction of the marketing.

There's a hope that when you sit down

in a theater to watch the movie,

you will see and understand the flip-side of everything we did

to get you there because you would have been involved with it

in some capacity.

Hopefully making the whole experience kind of, pleasingly circular.

Well, we wanted to either name a building

or we saw the mural she wanted to paint on the back court of her school

which, to paint a mural there would be fantastic.

The banners that she has are amazing.

I told him my school is for sale.

(ALL LAUGHING)

And that's her district by the way.

We love the idea of the Board of Ed, wrapping something here.

It's just, we're open to anything.

We have 12 sponsors, and if we average out all the sponsors

and say, "Well, boy, each of our sponsors reaches 15 million people"'

that is a lot of people to reach with one viral promotion.

Since we do have a television station,

since I'm gonna have to pitch our education television station

which represents a wonderful opportunity for the film to co-brand,

we could maybe do a student film festival...

WOMAN: Ooh! A student film festival! A student film...

I thought about that idea on the way to the meeting

so that could be a way to integrate and to co-brand the film

with our school system.

So, we're putting a sticker on our best selling pizzas

and that's gonna be a drive-to-web, that'll be our micro-site

and we'll link up to the movietickets.com site and whatever else works out.

And we're gonna have

a portion of the proceeds

of the sales of the pizzas

gonna go to feeding people at a food bank.

It's really up to you. If you wanna do exposure on a building

which then locks you into that...

SPURLOCK: I think a building is one thing.

Okay.

To do a building would be great.

To do, you know, a mural and some banners would be fantastic.

To do the film festival would be amazing.

Morgan did film a video for us.

For everyone who has flown JetBlue,

you know that we have individual TVs

in each seat-back, so we will run the welcome video,

I believe it's four to six weeks leading up to the premiere.

How did you get financing for the production?

It's being paid for by the companies.

It's being paid for by sponsors.

Oh! Excellent!

Yeah. Yeah.

Can you turn us over your sponsor list?

(ALL LAUGHING)

Maybe after the movie opens we can talk about that.

Okay. Yeah.

Cool. Yeah.

What I've started to realize over the course of making this film

is that once you open the door to being what one person said,

one person called me, which is being quote unquote "brand friendly"'

then that door is open.

The floodgates are open and suddenly, all of these opportunities,

different opportunities, whether it's for promoting the film

like we're trying to do right now

or it's being tied to somebody else's product,

all these different opportunities

that represent real difficult

moral and artistic dilemmas start popping up.

Here's a case in point.

(ON VOICEMAIL) Morgan, it's Ben Silverman giving you a call.

I've set up a new business with Will Arnett and Jason Bateman

that is focused on advertising production.

And we've got a really great idea we're working on

in and around the world of male grooming.

We want it to be funny and capture the tone that you do so well

and we thought of a fantastic brand partner to work on it with us.

Give me a call back and we'll set something up

to introduce you to Will and Jason.

Thanks, buddy. Bye.

How do you say no to that?

SPURLOCK: What's a sell-out?

A sell-out is someone that has no honor

and does something just for money

and doesn't take anything else into consideration.

A sell-out is when, to attain a certain level

you give up some of those principles

that formed your identity to begin with.

So I'm making this film that's actually being paid for by advertisers,

by companies, about advertising.

Right.

Yeah. So am I selling out by doing that?

I don't think so.

I mean, unless the point you're making is

that advertising is a bad thing.

Are you doing it with integrity?

I hope so. (LAUGHS)

And with a viewpoint of being objective?

Or are you doing it slanted, for the side of the advertiser

as a puppet, doing whatever the advertisement wants you to do?

As long as you do better than they do on it

then you're not... Then you're buying in.

SPURLOCK: Is that right?

Am I really not selling out?

Or am I finally just buying in?

(R&B MUSIC PLAYING)

MALE ANNOUNCER: Every sip gets you closer to Justin Timberlake mp3s.

Hey. Hey to you.

SPURLOCK: Seems like pushing a product is the new standard for gauging success.

Today's superstar singers pitch for perfume, action stars vouch for vodka.

Even America's Sweetheart is the new face for a make-up company.

For a filmmaker like me, this is pretty uncharted territory.

And to navigate these waters, who better to turn to

than one of the most successful celebrity spokesmen himself,

The Donald.

Is there a difference between selling out and being a celebrity spokesperson?

Well, the question's been asked because I do a lot of different things.

I'll do commercials for different companies, good companies.

I did Oreo's cookies with the Manning brothers

Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.

Trump!

And we're gonna be huge.

I feel if the commercial is done properly,

if you watch what you're doing,

it actually enhances your brand. It doesn't hurt your brand.

There are some people, that, as an example there are certain singers,

entertainers that would never, ever do a commercial.

I could name names, but I don't want to

because I've tried to get certain songs

and I could offer them $10 million to play a song once

and they would turn it down.

I mean, I think they're crazy, but they'd turn it down.

But there are people like that,

that would never partake in a commercial.

I don't think they're helped or hurt,

but I think they should take the money and run.

You take care of yourself. I really appreciate it.

Thanks.

SPURLOCK: But some musicians have done just that.

You see, brands have always known that one of the fastest ways

to make their products seem cool

was to pair them with the hottest artists.

(VERTIGO PLAYING)

(BACK IN BLACK PLAYING)

(SPACE ODDITY PLAYING)

SPURLOCK: And today, more and more musicians

are finding out just how important it can be

to get their music supported by brands.

What you have now is artists partner up with different brands

to kind of, get that extra push,

and you do anything from liquor sponsors

to cell phone companies to car companies all the way around,

to, kind of, round out the promotion of your project.

The artists are competing for impressions.

If they can do commercials, if they can endorse a product,

anything that they can do to get more impressions, the better.

After the Bacardi ad came out, I don't know how quickly it happened,

you could physically see one step away

from having a line chart of like,

"This is how many more people are starting to listen to your music."

Licensing to the commercials and stuff

now I know, just is a good way for a lot of people to hear you.

And I just want everyone to hear our music, that's all I want.

What would you never put your music in?

If somebody said, "We've got a commercial, we're selling blank."

Our sniff test for whether or not

it's all right to put a song in a commercial

is whether or not that commercial

is likely to make you feel worse about yourself.

Is it honoring the music?

And I gotta say, we have not always done this.

There were times, especially early in our career

where we just needed the cash

and our songs were in

some pretty gross commercials.

They had the "Got milk?" ads, and we never did a "Got milk" ad

because Dre doesn't drink milk,

you know what I'm saying?

It was as simple as that. It was a big check and everything

you know, but Dre didn't drink milk, so we never did it.

I was going through all kinds of ideas

with the manager and were like,

"Well, maybe it can be soy milk."

You know, I mean, they were like "No, it's gotta be milk."

So we didn't do it

because that maintains our artistic integrity of what we stand for.

Are you trying to establish OK Go as a brand?

Every band ever has had an identity.

Every person has an identity

and, it's cool to have your own identity,

but when you call it a brand,

it's suddenly cheesy.

Would you guys be willing to do a song,

create an original identity anthem for the movie?

I'd love to.

That sounds amazing. Yeah, awesome.

Does that... Wait, hold on.

If we make the theme for The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,

does that mean that we're the greatest rock band ever to write a theme song?

Absolutely.

I started this PR firm back in 1983

and something occurred to me: that we were living in wacky times.

Right.

And here is what was wacky about them.

In the world we live, there's this umbilical cord

between fame and credibility.

So, visibility equals credibility.

In the world we live in, you cannot be credible unless you're visible.

And so you see what we're doing here.

Yeah, I do.

What do we do?

Well...

What do I do to get the message out?

Sell, sell, sell!

That's it?

What the hell do you think you do, son? (LAUGHS)

Sell! You're in America!

The path to salvation is not through being quiet.

Okay. And being subtle.

Not in today's world. You gotta sell.

SPURLOCK: This is where you really start to see cause and effect.

It's pretty amazing to see behind the curtain

like we've gotten to on this film.

Now, what happens from this point on, that's the real question.

Now the movie's gonna go out in the world.

And now's the point

where I start to wonder exactly how affected I'll be by everything.

This is it. This is the start.

This is the beginning of the whole thing.

As much as the beginning of the process was the beginning of this,

with what our movie is about, like, this is the beginning.

This is literally where it really starts.

You know our next guest from his

You know our next guest from his

prize-winning documentary, Super Size Me.

His latest is called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

It is brought to you by Hyatt, POM Wonderful, JetBlue,

Mini Cooper, Mane 'n Tail Shampoo, the island of Aruba

and Amy's Frozen Pizza. It opens in theaters Friday.

Please say hello to Morgan Spurlock!

(THE GREATEST SONG I EVER HEARD PLAYING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

What's happening right now is in the movie?

Is actually in the film right now.

So we've actually in a way, gone back in time.

We have. The space-time continuum has shifted completely.

This is like the Inception of documentaries.

Man, these Old Navy clothes look so good!

So here's the trailers you've done.

We did Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3

and this is you, right here, that we're doing today.

And now The Greatest Movie.

So you have a key to their brain.

Here we go, three, two...

And I'd like to welcome you aboard JetBlue Airways,

the greatest airline you'll ever fly.

Now that we're in the air I'd like to tell you a little more about your flight.

ALL: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold!

You are a shameless whore if ever I've met one, Morgan Spurlock.

Yes, I am.

Morgan Spurlock, everyone.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold opens Friday! We'll be right back.

SPURLOCK: Yep, everywhere you look these days

it seems like someone's trying to sell you something.

Best I can do is just show you that it's out there.

Because at the end of the day, marketing works.

But maybe we all don't have to buy in.

Maybe there's still a place free from all the advertising

where we can actually think for ourselves.

So go outside! Take a nice long walk. Find that place.

And when you do it, do it in a nice comfortable pair of Merrells.

Let's throw some rocks.

(SHUTTERBUG PLAYING)

NADER: Oh, boy. Look at this.

Oh, man! Payola!

Not only that,

but I'll never be able to forget it.

After a million steps, "Morgan gave me this."

Morgan Spurlock on the march!

Thank you very much, Morgan. Really, it's very thoughtful of you.

It's hard to get shoes that fit.

(SHUTTERBUG PLAYING)

(PHONE RINGING)

(ON PHONE) Yeah. Ron.

SPURLOCK: Hey, man, how are you?

I'm good. What's up? I'm good.

I just wanted to call you back,

touch base with you and hear what you were thinking.

Okay, it's a little weird. I'm still talking about it with Tarssa,

and she's not quite ready to respond yet, I don't think.

Okay. Cool, man.

'Cause the last couple of paintings I sold, sold for a $120.

So, I don't know... I know you're big time.

I know that.

Can I put you on the phone with her?

'Cause I wanna make a decision and it's getting harder.

Do you have like 10 more seconds?

Sure. Hold on.

TARSSA: Hey, Morgan.

Hey, Tarssa, how are you?

Good. How are you? Good.

So, I just wanted to talk to you guys

about the placement in the film...

I was telling Ron, we could have a card with his photograph

of him painting the painting.

So he could, so Ron English could be

"The Greatest Artist to Ever Paint."

Um.

Yeah, I mean, the greatest artist

that ever lived or the greatest artist...

Yeah, he wants to be the greatest living artist.

The greatest living artist.

Okay, done, so we'll say, "Ron English, The Greatest Living Artist."

And he'll be the only person in the credits,

that'll actually have a photograph of him.

Cool.