HYATT HOTELS | THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD | 2012
The Paradox of Making a Movie About Advertising—With Advertising / HYATT "THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD"
A movie that criticizes product placement, made possible by product placement. This is that provocative, mischievous humor from Morgan Spurlock, who turns the contradiction itself into the whole point of the project.
The problem
Everyone knows big Hollywood movies get part of their budget from corporate tie-ins, but almost nobody had ever done that for a documentary. Spurlock pitched 650 companies and ended up raising a total of $1.5 million from more than a dozen brands, including POM Wonderful and Hyatt. POM Wonderful alone put in $1 million, which came with the right to have its name in the title.
The insight
Normal product placement tries to slip products into a scene without the audience noticing. This movie does the exact opposite: the contract negotiations, the back-and-forth with legal teams, even the branding meetings all happen right in front of the camera. The idea is to turn the very process of selling out into the movie itself.
The idea
Real contracts were signed requiring that, during filming, Spurlock would stay only at Hyatt hotels and drink nothing but POM Wonderful on camera. Three 30-second commercials featuring Spurlock himself are actually inserted into the film. The capper: a town in Pennsylvania changed its name to match the movie's title for two months.
What happened
The film brought in about $700,000 at the box office, a loss against its $1.5 million budget. Even so, it reportedly generated more than 600 million media impressions, which is seen as a solid result when judged as PR.
Afterthought
What really gets me is that every single sponsorship deal included a clause giving Spurlock final creative control. He took the money, then turned around and poked fun at the very people who paid him. Pulling off that balancing act is, in the end, the best advertisement this movie ever made.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2012
