POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD, Pa. -- Got any relatives in Altoona?

Starting today, you can say they live in POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

No joke.

The town formally known as Altoona is changing its name for 60 days to make some money — and help sarcastic documentarian Morgan Spurlock make a point about the proliferation of advertising in American life.

Spurlock, who gained more than 20 pounds by eating nothing but McDonald's food for a month in his 2004 film "Super Size Me," paid the city $25,000 to rename itself after his movie to underscore its message.

“We live in a place and a time when it seems like everything is brought to you by some sponsor,” Spurlock told The Associated Press. “It starts to become this question of, ‘Where does it end?’”

“Even when I’m standing at a urinal, chances are there’s an ad or a video screen staring back at me,” Spurlock said. “That used to be a little ‘me’ time that I had, a little private ‘me’ time that I’d like to have back.”

But the thing about Spurlock’s newest movie is that it’s sponsored by companies who have put their names and product images into the film, which argues against such behavior — humorously but strenuously.

Still, the premise didn’t stop 15 businesses — including POM Wonderful, a Los Angeles-based juice company that paid $1 million to be title sponsor — from bankrolling the movie with product placements, plus seven other companies that signed on to promote the film after the fact

A key sponsor is Altoona-based Sheetz Inc., a family owned convenience store chain with about 400 locations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Stan Sheetz, president and son of founder Bob Sheetz, said he was skeptical when Spurlock first pitched the concept to him, his uncle Louie Sheetz, who handles the chain’s marketing, and cousin Joe Sheetz.

That two-hour meeting has been boiled down to about six minutes for Sheetz’s “role” in the movie, for which the company paid Spurlock $100,000 with escalator clauses that will likely rise to $250,000 if the film and its subsequent DVD sales perform as projected.

“The money itself was not that big of a risk,” Stan Sheetz said. “The risk is, ‘What does it do to our brand?’¤”

“I’m hoping people will be saying, ‘Well, that looks like a fun place, those look like cool people, and a brand I want to associate with,’¤” he said.

Sheetz said it was Spurlock’s idea to have a secondary premiere, hopefully in a town that would name itself after the movie. Sheetz helped sell the idea in Altoona, and the locals seem enthused by the concept.

“I remember when I first read about it thinking, ‘I’m not wild about that name’ — but the more I thought about it, I kind of like it,” said53-year-old Jeff Tauber.

Mayor William Schirf plans to turn the city’s take — $25,000 — over to the town’s police department.

“This is a ceremonial change by proclamation, not resolution,” he said. “We’re in the spirit of it all. It’s a fun thing for us. It’ll give the city notoriety. We’ll be the only city in America changing its name like this. It’s for a good cause.”

Erik Cagle, a Republican councilman, said the publicity venture will allow Altoona to showcase what it has to offer.

“Altoona has the best of both worlds when it comes to big city and small town,” he said. “We have big-city opportunities in education, health care and sports, as well as small-town neighborhoods. You know people’s names. It’s not too much of a transient town. People have been here for long time. They have deep roots.”

City officials have heard from residents not pleased that this amount of money can be exchanged for this cause at a time when the Altoona Area Public Library stands to lose critical funding.

“We’ve got funding gaps in a lot of places,” Cagle said. “The library might be one of them, but we definitely have in other areas. This was a nice gesture on Morgan Spurlock’s part.”

The city decided to give the police department the money to offset the cost of extra staffing for today’s ceremony.

Altoona residents and would-be graduates and nuptials need not change any official forms.”Of course, there will be no name change on birth certificates or diplomas,” Cagle said. “It’s just ceremonial. As our mayor said, it shows we have a sense of humor. We can laugh at ourselves. It’s all in good fun.”

The former Altoona tonight will host the East Coast premiere of the film, which opened far more conventionally in Los Angeles last week.

Ivey DeJesus of The Patriot-News contributed to this report.