A Filmmaker Wants to Help Others Use Product Placement
“He’s not selling out, he’s buying in,” says the slogan for “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” Morgan Spurlock’s whimsical documentary about product placement in movies and television shows. Not one to leave a dollar on the table, at least when it comes to financing films, Mr. Spurlock now plans to help the rest of the documentary world buy in.
At the DOC NYC Film Festival, Mr. Spurlock is expected to join Thom Powers, the festival’s artistic director, and Claudia Strauss, chief executive of Grey New York’s Alliance unit, in announcing a program to help documentary makers round up product placement money for the marketing and distribution of their wares. The program is called “Launch PAD” — the letters stand for “prints, advertising and distribution.” The idea is simple, if somewhat unexpected, given documentarians’ frequent tilt toward subjects like death row (as in Werner Herzog’s “Into the Abyss”) or impending doom (in Jon Shenk’s “The Island President,” about the sinking Maldives). Alliance plans to approach potential brand partners with a roster of films selected by Mr. Spurlock, Mr. Powers and its own executive team, asking each for $50,000 or more to become identified with the marketing of a film. It is not hard to see the appeal for the filmmakers: Documentary makers are perennially starved for cash, particularly when it comes time to distribute a movie that may have cost relatively little to make. But companies may also have something to gain from an association with reality-oriented filmmakers who often pride themselves on speaking truth to power.