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MOVIES AND MARKETING
“Are You Eating It Or Is It Eating You?”
Why the 1985 film The Stuff takes modern marketing practices to task and is one of the most underappreciated movies of all time
In America, more is always better — more money, more friends, more food, more stuff. Larry Cohen’s 1985 film The Stuff makes a mockery of this mindset, presenting the dangers of a society completely driven by the desire for excess.
Unfortunately, America today is still obsessed with more, making this film especially relevant to a twenty-first century audience. Underappreciated for so long (Roger Ebert only gave the film 1½ stars), it’s time for The Stuff to become the cult classic it was always meant to be.
The plot (a few spoilers!)
The Stuff follows the discovery, meteoric rise, and ultimate downfall of a mass-marketed yogurt-like food product, eponymously called the Stuff. After its discovery and an aggressive marketing campaign, the Stuff seems to be on a course to outsell ice cream (oh, the horror!). Ice cream executives are terrified, so they band together and hire Mo Rutherford, an investigator and saboteur, to eliminate the Stuff as competition.
