Morgan Spurlock talks 'Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold'

Call it a Super Sell-Out -- Morgan Spurlock, the director of "Super Size Me," tackles the subject of product placement and integrated marketing in entertainment in his latest documentary by making the film about the process of getting sponsors to make the film. A little too meta for you? Don't worry, Spurlock breaks it down into easy-to-follow, humorous segments -- including his own versions of commercials for sponsors such as Hyatt, Mane 'n Tail, and Pom Wonderful, which paid a million for the film to include its brand in the title, hence "Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold." By doing so, Spurlock uses his own product placement to unveil the inner workings of brand messaging, and opens it up for debate -- with Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, J.J. Abrams, Brett Ratner, and Quentin Tarantino among those chiming in. Spurlock tells us how it all went down, but we have to wonder -- do interviews about the film count as further product placement? As we see here, yes.

Q: We see a lot of the arrangements to get sponsors on camera, but what didn’t we see?

A: Tons of phone calls. We called 600 companies and we got 22 sponsors. When we were first making phone calls, there were a lot of people who felt an obligation to meet me, talk to me, only to tell me they weren’t interested, which was a massive waste of time. It would have been nicer if they just said, “We’re not going to do this,” upfront.  They were wondering, “How is this going to be good for us?” The key was that they had to be willing to give up control, and people don’t want to do that. They want to control every frame. But the 22 companies – 15 in the movie – that came aboard said, “We believe in this. We like this idea. We don’t know if we can trust you,” but gave me control anyway.

Q: There’s no mention in the film about how your title sponsor, Pom Wonderful, is being charged by the Federal Trade Commission with making false health claims, in regards to preventing or treating heart disease, prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction…

A: We were in post-production when that hit the trades. And there’s a great question to ask there – is that why they signed on to sponsor this movie? Did they know this was going to happen? Maybe. There’s a distinct possibility there.

Q: Especially when you consider how they turned down your proposed Pom commercial, where you’d have an erection! Or maybe they just don't like erections…

A: That could be it, too! [Laughs]

Q: By pitching these commercial ideas, though, you’re going above and beyond. Filmmakers don't usually propose to put an outright commercial in their films to get funding, or do they?

A: We wanted to do more than the average bear, especially for the title sponsor. Part of the benefit of being a sponsor is being in the film, and part of it is beyond the film. The benefits for them would when I’m talking about the film and going out into the world – staying in Hyatt Hotels, which become the greatest hotel, “Oh, I flew here on Jet Blue,” which becomes the greatest airline, “I’m here talking to you in a Ted Baker suit,” which becomes the greatest suit. Then they understand how it bleeds into the promotion.

Q: Did you just drop some product placement in this interview?

A: I just dropped three of them! [Laughs]

Q: Some of the promises or pitches you make, for instance, telling Ban that you’ll offer Ban deodorant to interview subjects, we don’t see the follow-through in the movie…

A: You can see the Ban on the table with Quentin Tarantino. I offered it to him before the interview started, but you just don’t see that. We offered it to about 10 or 15 of the interview subjects. And most people just laughed.

Q: Some of the sponsors didn’t pay. Mane 'n Tail shampoo, for instance…

A: Who doesn’t like Mane 'n Tail? It’s a shampoo for you and your horse. Just throwing that out there. For the sponsors that didn’t pay, we were explicit in making sure it was clear that they didn’t pay to be in the movie. No one questions that. Carrera didn’t pay. Seventh Generation didn’t pay. Amy’s Pizza didn’t pay. But they came to the table with co-promotions. There’s hard money, and soft money. There’s social media. Amy’s Pizza is putting stickers on 200,000-300,000 pizza boxes. It’s that kind of thing that makes this an event.

Q: But no fast food sponsors…

A: I tried! [Laughs] You can’t have a doc-buster without a fast-food meal, a Happy Meal, but McDonald’s didn’t call me back. No surprise there. I called In-N-Out, and I was like, “Come on, think how cool this will be,” and they said, “We don’t normally do this,” and I said, “That’s what makes it so great! You guys could do an Unhappy Meal, or a Slightly Displeased Meal. We could talk about how there’s good, healthy food inside.” I was so bummed. But they don’t do meals, they don’t do toys. I guess they thought those were kids things, but I don’t think a kid would be going for that anyway. It’s more of an adult kitschy thing. I wanted collector’s cups, but Circle K said no, 7-Eleven said no, and we went all the way down the list, until Sheetz said yes, during the interview.

Q: Same for OK Go – they said yes during the interview? But that’s a little more work, doing a theme song…

A: It’s real work. They had to go do something, not just write a check. Although some of my sponsors would disagree, since cross-promotion can be work. Originally OK Go said no, they wouldn’t have time, because it was over Christmas. But I wanted to talk to them anyway about music marketing, and so we met on December 15, and then they said yes. They came back from the break, recorded the song on January 3, sent us a master, I made some comments, they remixed it, and they got it to us on January 11 – just in time for Sundance. We laid it right in, and that was the last thing we did for the film.

Q: Now that you’ve had this experience, would you go through it again for your next film? Obviously off-camera. More to the point, do you think product placement works?

A: It depends on the movie. Perhaps not for another documentary, although for this documentary, it made sense. But it does work in bigger movies, all the tie-ins, for the Michael Bays of the world. But would this create excitement about a smaller movie? It’s a real experiment. That’s what I’m excited to see, if it does work. For somebody making a $300,000 movie, and they get a sponsor saying, “Sure, I’ll give you $10,000 if you put these paper towels in the back of the shot,” that $10,000 can go a long way. If it’s about making a great movie, and not making a commercial, great  -- I want to see a great movie, not a Toyota commercial.

Q: Not even a Hyatt commercial like the one you do in the film?

A: [Laughs] Oh, that’s different. Everyone should stay at a Hyatt! [Laughs]