Ad exec Lee Clow has me wanting to buy an iPod.

When infamous murderer Gary Gilmore egged on his executioners with the phrase “Let’s do it,” he couldn’t have known he was helping a copywriter birth one of the most famous advertising campaigns in American history, Nike’s overwhelmingly successful “Just Do It” marketing blitz. When late ad exec Hal Riney struggled through an unhappy childhood in Washington state, he had no idea that his longing for an idyllic existence would someday provide images for Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” TV commercials. The origins of these ubiquitous images from our lives make up the crux of Doug Pray’s intriguing documentary, Art & Copy.

If you’re looking for a philippic about the evils of capitalism, you have to search elsewhere. Perhaps still reeling emotionally from his thorny family documentary, Surfwise, Pray doesn’t focus on the moral implications of advertising but rather the people who fuel the industry by dreaming up 30-second spots in which American Tourister luggage is thrown into a gorilla cage. All of advertising’s living legends are interviewed. George Lois, the Bronx-born genius behind everything from the brilliant Harold Hayes-era Esquire covers in the ’60s to the astoundingly successful “I Want My MTV!” campaign in the ’80s, bemoans the current crop of young ad people. But the beat goes on, as talking heads share interesting insights into their profession.

Considering that advertising has used dubious means to sell everything from cigarettes to fat-laden foods to politicians, there is definitely room for numerous docs that examine the dark side of the ad biz. At one point in the movie, industry legend Mary Wells matter-of-factly states, “I think you manufacture any feeling you want to manufacture.” Wells is simply stating a rule of the game, but the sentence exists equally as a cautionary tale. That’s especially true since even the most seasoned ad people are often surprised by the reach and power of their campaigns as they permeate through the culture in unexpected ways. (Available as a rental via Netflix and other outlets.)