The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Advertising an Advertising Movie

While watching Inception, I spent most of the movie nodding knowingly as if to convince my date of my incredible intellect and logic. The truth is, Inception left me more confused than a blind dog in a butcher shop. I attribute most of this to the obscene levels of lead-based paint in my childhood home, and some of it to Christopher Nolan's need to prove he's the smartest man in the world. But Inception is not alone in its mind-bending/universe folding/reality-is-a-myth attempts at duping movie go-ers (See films such as eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor, and Big Momma's House 2, to name a few). Documentarian Morgan Spurlock's (Super Size Me, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?) newest film, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, adds a new self-referential layer to brain-crushing cinema. Placing advertising and marketing in his crosshairs, Spurlock has made a movie about selling the very film the audience is watching.
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Mad Men’s Renewal Saga

Oh gentle, ad-obsessed readers, it seems like only yesterday Mad Men was on the air and we at Post Advertising were serving up weekly slabs of inspired ad industry analysis to go with it. Where do the days go? It’s been nearly 6 months! The show isn't back, but there is a bit of news: following belabored negotiations with AMC, it was announced that Don Draper & Co. won’t be back in action until 2012. Who’s responsible for the hold up and what made the protracted, closed-door contract talks so ironic? Read on!
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The Opposite of Product Placement

We know that putting a product in the hands of someone the masses adore can do wonders for sales. Perfectly logical. Putting a product in the hands of someone the masses detest could therefore potentially hurt sales. Perfectly Logical. But! Can putting a competitor’s product in the hands of someone the masses don’t trust help your sales? That is some next-level double-reverse marketing trickery right there.
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