Advertising

Advertising is a pretty scuzzy business, but the interesting thing about POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is that it simultaneously educates us in the evils of the industry while shamelessly promoting it at the same time. Perhaps what sets it apart from typical corporate prostitution is its transparency. Morgan Spurlock is comical and very open about what the movie is. The really blatant ads that appear in the middle of the movie are so very obvious that it becomes laughable. I didn't leave the classroom feeling manipulated like I might for some other documentary, but instead educated and slightly more cynical.
Product placement can really be quite an insidious practice, but as long as it remains camouflaged, I don't really have a problem with it. I don't really care if a character takes a swig of Dr. Pepper and begins their dialogue. I don't even care if they say something like: "Hey, I'm thirsty, what's in the fridge?" "Dr. Pepper." "Awesome, toss me one." That's fairly benign and doesn't really detract from the narrative, but when you have characters actively and awkwardly pimping out products a la the cringeworthy ads seen in something like Bones, where the characters have (more than once!) been in their crappy Fords lauding the peachy keen navigation systems, it's too much. If it can be incidentally explained away, it's no problem, but stuff like that is just unacceptable.