Ben Silverman made his Sundance Film Festival debut over the weekend through appearances in Morgan Spurlock’s “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.” Spurlock, a documentary filmmaker best known for “Super Size Me,” which followed him while he stuck to a 30-day McDonald’s-only diet, was this time around focusing on the world of advertising. More specifically, he examined product placement, marketing and branding by giving viewers an inside look at a film that was financed entirely by those exact things. In the movie, Ben Silverman and Morgan Spurlock discuss branded content related to Electus’ recent project, the “Always Open” web series for Denny’s restaurants.
POM, the makers of pomegranate juice, was the film’s title sponsor, and Spurlock documents the experience of getting the company to take on the film’s finances, along with the trials of getting other companies to tag along—such as Merrell Shoes and CARRERA Sunglasses and JetBlue, all also sponsors. In an ironic twist, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against POM because of the film, accusing the company of making false and unsubstantiated claims for its product in advertising, according the Hollywood Reporter.
