Filmmaker Morgna Spurlock pays Pennsylvania city $25,000 to change its name

IS this the ultimate example of product placement? Super Size Me director gets Pennsylvania city to change name to title of his new film.

Morgan Spurlock

FILMMAKER Morgan Spurlock is paying a Pennsylvania city $25,000 to change its name for 60 days to promote his new film POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, the Pitsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Spurlock

is paying Altoona, a city of nearly 50,000 people, to change its name to POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Pennyslvania after his new film which pokes fun at product placement and branding in movies and TV.

Spurlock, 40 - who was nominated for an Oscar for his documentary Super Size Mein which he ate nothing but McDonald's for a month - said he came up with the idea after his film debuted in January at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

He said he had contacted small towns across the US, deliberately avoiding bigger cities so he could reflect his home town of Beckley, West Virginia. He said he did not want to choose Beckley as it would be too obvious.

"Small towns throughout America are facing hard times. You see in the film there are schools letting advertising in. All these places are selling rights to try to make ends meet or fill budget gaps," he said.

Altoona was chosen, in part, because it is home to one of the film's major sponsors Sheetz Inc., a chain of gas stations and convenience stores.

Spurlock spoke to Sheetz which pitched the idea to Altoona city officials.

Altoona's council voted 7-0 in favour of the name change at a Wednesday meeting and it will take effect from April 27.

Mayor Bill Schirf told the Altoona Mirror the money would be used to help fund the police department.

POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold - named after the brand POM Wonderful, a Los Angeles-based company that makes pomegranate juices, teas and health products - opens in Australia later this year.