The world has lost a legend in Super Size Me, directed by Morgan Spurlock, far too soon. He passed away on May 23rd, 2024, at just 53 years old. Our hearts are with the Spurlock family as they grieve the loss of a legend who offered critical food education to a nation.
Remember with us the great work Morgan Spurlock is best known for and the powerful legacy he left behind him. We didn’t know Spurlock would be a national treasure when we heard there was going to be a movie called Super Size Me. Even if you never watched either of his Super Size Me movies, you know that eating too much McDonalds is a bad idea.
Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me
Super Size Me was Spurlock’s and his company, Warrior Poets’, gateway into filmmaking. The movie was named after McDonald’s infamous Super Size combos in the early 2000s. It tackled how fast food companies, mainly the Golden Arches, were the main reason for America’s obesity rate.
He ate through 30 days of only eating at McDonald’s from breakfast to dinner. At the end of the month, Morgan’s health team reported his McDiet gave him a risk of having coronary heart disease and high cholesterol and had converted his liver into fat. He later admitted that he heavily drank alcohol during the filming.
His success would soon become a downward spiral in December 2017. A woman from Spurlock’s college years revealed on Twitter (now X) that he sexually harassed her without realizing it at the time. He later confessed about the post during the #MeToo movement, a promotion for the MeToo organization to assist victims of sexual harassment.
Morgan resigned from Warrior Poets after the film was pulled from the 2018 Sundance Film Fest.
Spurlock Returns in Super Size Me 2
Super Size Me‘s sequel, Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken, was later released on YouTube on February 27, 2020, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic took effect on the world. During and after Morgan’s resignation from Warrior Poets, Spurlock faced his next target in the food industry: Big Chicken.
Big Chicken has five major US chicken distributors: Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms, Perdue Farms, and Koch Farms. Spurlock would spend time farming chickens with Koch’s chicken farmer, Johnathan Buttram. He would work undercover in a temporary chicken house while learning from Buttram about the rigged tournament system and the synthetic breed of chicken companies use for their products.
Spurlock also developed an understanding of how to manage a fast food restaurant, not just through store operations but in marketing as well. As crazy as it sounds, he opened a chicken fast food chain called Holy Chicken on September 21, 2019.
Spurlock faced his fears of the public and described his heart-wrenching experience when his confession happened to Business Insider days before opening the restaurant:
“Within eight days, our whole company was decimated. […] I went from 65 employees to three, basically me, my brother (Craig), and my accountant. […] The hardest part for me was I literally put so many people in my company out of work before the holidays.”
As the customers eat their food, he uses clever marketing tactics to teach them how the so-called health-conscious restaurants lure you in with natural colors, fake images of free-range chickens with the real experience on the back of the photos, and Buttram’s story of working in the industry.
Morgan Spurlock Passes Away
The man behind the health-conscious film Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock, has recently passed away from cancer at the age of 53. His death was reported Thursday evening, May 23rd, 2024.
His brother, Craig, who worked alongside his film projects, reports to Variety, “It was a sad day as we say goodbye to my brother Morgan. […] Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity. Today the world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
Spurlock lived with two sons, Laken from his 2nd ex-wife Alex Jamieson, Kallen from his now third ex-wife Sara Bernstein, and his parents, Ben and Phyllis Spurlock.
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