Happy Dox

Brand Morgan Spurlock: provocative, loud and in your face. Who in the sensitive world of corporate and product marketeering would want to align themselves with the values of the filmmaker who decimated McDonald's ('Super Size Me') and whose performative approach to investigative journalism makes everybody twitchy? That's exactly what the inimitable Spurlock sets out to establish in this riveting documentary that lays bare the lucrative and ubiquitous business of product placement, advertising and brand promotion in the film industry. Endeavouring to finance his film using the very same mechanisms he sets out to critique - Spurlock literally starts 'living the brand' as each product signs up - the super salesman occasionally frets about selling out whilst juggling the frequently conflicting interests of his growing list of sponsors and masterminding the production and campaign for the world's first 'docbuster'. Funny, audacious and smart, the film raises a bigger question - is everything for sale? - that will resonate well beyond the work itself.