The Greatest Movie Ever Sold?

Last week I came across POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and my first question is... why didn't we watch this for any of our marketing classes?

A movie about product placement, marketing and advertising funded by product placement, marketing and advertising. Brilliant! Here's the trailer:

I love the fact that this documentary is loaded with satire. Even more pleasing to me is the fact that it's the type of satire that you laugh at for the first few minutes and then you're forced to think and ask yourself questions like: "Do I like these shoes because the aesthetic is pleasing to me or because they were worn by a leading Hollywood actor/actress in the latest Blockbuster film?"

As a marketer, one of my pet peeves is being marketed at. This week I went in to Verizon to buy a new phone and the salesperson was putting it on thick. What a turn off. I decided to buy online instead. I most definitely appreciate being marketed towards. The difference between the two is the approach. No one likes that person in the subway station who pushes flyers up their nostrils. Instead, I genuinely appreciate when a company takes the time to do research and target a demographic appropriately or reaches a target audience through creative initiatives. When working for clients it's necessary not only to understand their business but also what their competition isn't doing!

Spurlock also addresses the consequences to buying advertising. No one likes to be addressed as a 'sell out' and most creatives hate losing control of their creative vision. However, the documentary explores how quite often this is the case in Hollywood. 

Section 324: the product must have 15 seconds of screen time on 4 separate occasions.

Nice try POM, I may or may not give you a trial in the future. Brand integration. Product placement. Co-promotion. Apart from The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, my favorite feature was watching the Ford Focus park itself on the Amazing Race last season. I can appreciate a good product placement, keep it classy or unexpected and I won't change the channel.

What's your favorite feature of product placement? Sound off below.

Netflix = Noflix

A week ago I took the time to have a Scandal marathon on Netflix.

• The quality was HD
• I didn't have to queue the next episode, it played automatically
• An overall lazy and lovely marathon experience......until I looked for more marathon worth content and came up short. 

I've always had hope for Netflix. We had some good memories, the two of us. Yet, sadly enough, since it's breakup with Starz, our friendship just hasn't been the same. We went our separate ways and I paid occasional visits whenever my friendship was begged for. Netflix finds our friendship important. A free trial gift because I'm missed? No. A free trial gift because I'm needed.

I've always had hope for Netflix. However, a 10% fall today in the stocks is no surprise since this is my 4th free trial. Yikes. If Spotify Premium gave me another free trial I would be a happy camper but Spotify understands the detriment to that. Continuous free trials tells the customer your product isn't as valuable as it is priced. Quite frankly, I don't understand why there has been a shift in content being provided. There's an entire section 'Just For Kids' and all 3 kids in my household watch video content on the television. Is this a failure to conduct adequate market research? Another shift noted has been towards adult television. Hulu dominates in this area, therefore; this is an attempt at being delusional. A distinct DVD plan further takes steps to becoming obsolete since redbox takes the cake with supermarket shoppers.

I still have hope for Netflix. A hope for an imminent Amazon acquisition. I look forward to my next free trial offer (even though I may pass on it).