The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Everywhere you look these days,

it seems like someone's trying to sell you something.

On billboards, posters, stickers, elevators, gas pumps, airplanes,

cups, napkins, coffee holders, wire hangers.

Even bathrooms.

See, it used to be that when someone really wanted to sell you something,

they could rely on the good old fashioned 30-second TV spot.

He likes it! Hey, Mikey!

But thanks to the invention of this...

And this...

There's a revolution going on called "Internet."

Fewer and fewer of us are actually sitting through these.

Anything is possible

when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady.

So how's a poor struggling multimillion-dollar corporation

supposed to let you know they even exist?

Hey, welcome to Morning Joe, brewed by Starbucks!

We do have a special guest...

Excuse me, I'm just going to have a sip here of my Starbucks.

There you go.

Welcome to the brave new worid of brand integration.

But you may know it by its old school name...

Converse All Stars, vintage 2004...

Product placement.

You can use a Guinness.

Today, product placement is a multibillion dollar industry

that generates hard cash for movies, creates new identities for brands,

but most importantly, delivers the holy grail of marketing, co-promotion.

You see, co-promotion is what takes a regular movie

and turns it into a blockbuster.

Take Iron Man.

That movie had more than 14 brand partners.

Everything from a Whiplash Whopper to Iron Man Dr Pepper cans,

to Tony Stark himself driving of in an Audi commercial.

These types of partnerships

deliver millions of dollars of free advertising for the movie

while also raising visibility for the companies themselves.

But do all these co-promotions actually work?

Do they have that much influence over the choices we make?

Does Shrek make me want to take a Royal Caribbean Cruise

or Burger King make me wanna go see Twilight?

Is the only thing missing from my movie achieving Iron Man status

a little co-promotion?

Well, if that's true,

then I can't wait to get some of that sweet Hollywood ad money.

Last year, more than $412 billion were spent on marketing and advertising.

And out of that $412 billion,

just four companies controlled over 75% of it.

If I'm gonna make a doc-buster

it seems like these companies are a great place to start

So what I wanna do,

is make a film all about product placement marketing and advertising,

where the entire film is funded

by product placement, marketing, and advertising.

So the movie will be called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

So what happens in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

is that everything from top to bottom, start to finish,

is branded from beginning to end.

You know, from the above-the-title sponsor that you'll see in the movie

which is brand X...

Now this brand, the Qualcomm Stadium, the Staples Center...

These people will be married to the film in perpetuity, forever,

- So the film explores this whole idea... - It's redundant.

- It's what? - It's redundant.

In perpetuity forever? I'm a redundant person,

I'm just saying...

That was more for him. It's in perpetuity, period, forever.

But not only are we going to have the brand X title sponsor,

but we're gonna make it so we can sell out every category we can in the film.

So maybe we sell a shoe,

and it becomes "The Greatest Shoe You Ever Wore,"

"The Greatest Car You Ever Drove," from The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

You know, "The Greatest Drink You've Ever Had"

courtesy, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

So the idea is beyond just showing that brands are part of your life,

but actually get them to finance the film. Is that it?

Get them to finance the film

and actually we show the whole process of, "How does it work?"

The goal of this whole film is transparency.

You're going to see the whole thing take place in this movie.

So that's the whole concept. The whole film, start to finish.

And I would love for CEG to help make it happen.

Hey, you know, it's funny 'cause when I first hear it,

it is the ultimate respect for an audience.

I don't know how receptive people are going to be to it, though,

Do you have a perspective, or...

I don't want to use "angle" cause that sort of has a negative connotation...

- Do you know how this is going to play out? - No idea.

How much money does it take to do this?

- $1.5 million. - $1.5 million,

Okay,

I think you're going to have a hard time meeting with them,

but I think it's certainly worth pursuing

a couple of really big, obvious brands,

Who knows? Maybe, by the time your film comes out

we'll look like a bunch of blithering idiots.

What do you think the response is going to be?

The responses mostly will be no.

But is the toughest sell because of the film or is the toughest sell because of me?

Both.

That meeting, not so optimistic.

So can you help me? I need help.

- I can help you. - Okay.

- Good. - Good.

Awesome!

- We got to figure out which brands. - Yeah.

That's the challenge.

When you look at the people you deal with, or...

We've got some places we can go.

- Okay. Okay. - Turn the camera off,

I thought "turn the camera off" meant "let's have an off-the-record conversation."

Tums out it really means, "We want nothing to do with your movie."

Luckily, I've got an old friend in the industry who might be a bit more receptive,

Richard Kirshenbaum has worked in advertising for years

and has made a name for himself and his agency

by not thinking like an agency.

If anyone out there is going to get in its him.

So ultimately what we want to try and do,

is create what is the Iron Man of documentaries.

The documentary that when it comes out, has so many partners

has so many brands involved...

I love the idea that you're actually selling out, you're admitting selling out,

- and therefore not selling out. - And therefore not selling out.

It's genius,

And the story, also, is talking to people

who say this is a problem with the industry, this is wrong.

But then there's people who are like, "How could it be wrong?

"It's where we started in television. It's where we started in film."

So the film is about the marketing of movies,

and I want to be a sponsor.

You guys can tell me better than anyone else

what the, kind of like, "Here's what we pay you for these things,"

and so you start to see these things come to fruition

- over the course of the film. - Right.

So you're willing to sell out completely, personally, to do this?

- Whatever it takes. - Great.

So what do we do now?

I think the thing to do is go get a client.

Get one.

- Thank you. - Great to see you.

- This is going to be fun. - Yeah, thanks, guys.

To get my first client, I need to understand two things.

Who would actually sponsor this movie?

And how I'm supposed to talk to them.

Britt Johnson is the president of Media Placement,

one of the most successful product placement agencies in the country.

And David Wales is the president of the Ministry of Culture

and makes his living, predicting the next big trends in advertising.

If we were going out to sell somebody to be a product or brand in the film,

what's that worth?

It depends on how many people you reach,

- Dozens. - Dozens?

This movie is going to reach dozens of people.

It would depend how many people you reach.

How do I figure out who I should go after?

I would just go for everybody.

- As long as the check clears. - Yeah, as long as the check clears.

The one good thing is,

you might be able to get a lot of the things paid for,

That's a good question,

so what are the things we should be looking for to try and get for free?

I think you might be able to get a beer brand,

hotels, air service, computers, car.

You definitely should have a sports car.

What about clothing?

- Yeah! Clothing? - Can you get clothing?

Yeah, clothing would be easy,

How do I make a company want to be in this movie?

You start by acknowledging that you yourself are a brand. Right?

What's your brand collateral? What are you bringing to the table?

I guess that's what you need to figure out

in terms of making yourself appealing to them.

How would you guys describe your brand?

My brand?

I don't know like...

I like really nice clothes.

'80s revival meets skater punk.

Unless it's laundry day.

The brand that I am is... I would call it "Casual Fly,"

If Dan were a brand,

he might be a classic convertiblr Mercedes-Benz.

Part hippie, part yogi, part Brooklyn girl? I don't know.

Failed writer, alcoholic brand? Is that something?

I think most Of Hollywood has that brand covered.

For me to get any companies on board,

I first need to understand what I'm offering them.

That's where Olson Zaltman comes in.

By using an intense form of psychoanalysis,

they've helped companies like Hallmark, Nestle, and Febreze

better understand what they call their brand personality.

- You brought your pictures, right? - I did.

The very first picture, is a picture of my family.

So tell me about how it relates

to your thoughts and feelings about who you are.

These are the people who shaped the way I look at the world.

Tell me about this world.

I think your world is the world that you live in.

The people that are around you, your friends, your family.

The way you live your life, the job you do,

All those things stemmed and started from one place.