Morgan Spurlock is a documentary personality for a new generation. More charismatic than Errol Morris, but not as upsetting as Michael Moore, he’s like a younger, American version of Werner Herzog onscreen. His third film, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Film Ever Sold, explores the world of product placement in our daily lives, from film and television down to public school buses. North by Northwestern sat down with Spurlock for a group interview where he talked about the process of the film, a few favorite moments and how he sees audiences reacting to product placement in the future.
You are very good at putting humor into something, but at the same time making it informational, what they say in the film about you being mindful and playful. Have you always been that way?
I’m a real believer that if you can make someone laugh you can make someone listen, and I think through humor you have the ability to touch a lot more people than through browbeating them. I hate being told what to do, as my ex-wife will attest to. You don’t want to be the person who is saying “and this is what’s wrong with America, here’s what you have to do, and here are the problems, and you have to do this. What’s wrong with you people?” I shut down immediately, but the minute somebody starts engaging me in a real humorous or creative way, I’m so open to what’s happening. Through laughter I feel like you can pull people in, in a great way.
What can you say about the ratio of academic talking heads you had in the film as opposed to the entertainment professionals?
I’ll tell you one of the things that I really wanted for this film that we couldn’t get. It’s really telling in a lot of ways, we really wanted to get an A-list actor to come on the film and talk about the films where they had to go “I agree…” extreme close-up of them drinking the Coke or the Pepsi, or getting in their car, and we could not get an A-list actor to talk to us. I think there’s still an idea of real repercussions in Hollywood against speaking out against things. We were incredibly lucky to get J.J. Abrams, Quentin Tarantino, Peter Berg, Brett Ratner, but these are guys who are at such a level of success that ultimately I don’t think they have to be concerned about it. They can express openly and honestly what they think of the business.
Has the film skewed your viewpoint on product placement? Do you think it’s worse or better? Do you understand it, are you more sympathetic than you used to be?
I don’t know if sympathetic is the right word. It’s ruined film and TV for me forever, as it will for you. Once you see this film, you will dissect every film or television show you watch. It pulls back the curtain in such a way that you are hyper-aware, which I think is great. I think it’s great to be aware of what’s happening within that world. And I think what the film did for me was ask the question of, where do I draw the line? Where as a society do we draw the line? One of my favorite lines is the film is when I’m talking to the woman who sells advertising in the Broward County School District, and I ask why people are so upset about advertising coming to schools, and she says “because school is sacred.” School is a place where you should be free from this type of marketing and advertising. What I realized in the course of making the film is that nothing is sacred. We live in a time where that idea of the sacred space, the sacred moments, that kind of safety or freedom is gone. If you’re in a place where you are a captive audience for five seconds, somebody is going to try and market to you in that moment whether you’re in an elevator, at a gas pump, standing in front of a urinal, sitting on a toilet, there’s ads in all of those places now. We’ve stripped away those sacred places.
A phrase that you used at some point in relation to the film is “business with consequences.” Now that these companies have sponsored you, what do you think the ideal audience reaction to future product placement will be?
It depends on what it is. Ultimately, what I would love to see happen in Hollywood is that you have to get the brands, get these companies out of the writer’s room, you’ve got to get these people out of the conversation about what makes something creative and good. Let creative people do their job, let writers be great writers, directors be great directors, be associated with them and give up this precious idea of “we’re so important as a brand,” and let go, because through that freedom of creativity that you give to them, by letting go of control, you’re going to open yourself up to opportunities that I think are going to be much more beneficial. And you’re going to empower artists, and you’re going to unleash much greater success than having somebody in the middle of a scene hold something next to their face, which I can’t stand.
Doing a Truman Show moment.
Yes, like The Truman Show. What’s that scene where [Laura Linney] holds cocoa or coffee up to her face, and [Jim Carrey] says “who are you talking to?” I love that scene.