Selling Out: A Brief, Highly Selective History of Product Placement at the Movies
Greatest Movies Ever Sold
Morgan Spurlock is the guy who ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days straight and turned his saga of greasy dining into the gross-out tale Super Size Me (2004). Now he's made another documentary starring himself. In POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Spurlock persuades corporations to promote their products within his new film — which just happens to be about the scurrilous business of product placement. (POM Wonderful committed $1 million to the production; in exchange, Spurlock guzzles POM onscreen and blathers about the health benefits of pomegranate juice.) The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, in limited release April 22, is glib and fun, but it's superficial enough to make us thirsty for a little more context — which we've provided here, with a (very) selective history of product placement in the movies.