this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

The current favorite movie at our house is Charlotte's Web. I adore that movie. It's full of great messages and humor for adults, yet still an enjoyable movie for children. I watched it many times as a child, but never realized the advertising lessons. Charlotte decides that in order to save Wilbur, she'll play a trick on Mr. Zuckerman. She says "people are gullible, they'll believe anything they see in print", so she proceeds to weave positive words about Wilbur into her web. And do the people fall for it? Well, Mrs. Zuckerman almost doesn't. She says, upon finding the words in the web for the first time, "It seems we have no ordinary spider". Mr. Zuckerman is quick to correct her. It's just a regular grey spider, he says, but that pig, that certainly is a fabulous pig (or rather radiant and terrific)! We know there's nothing special about Wilbur. He is just a regular pig, but the writing in the web says otherwise so everyone comes to think that he's extraordinary.

What I really think is funny is that Charlotte says it's all just a "trick". Is that what advertising really is? Sometimes maybe. Just some food for thought next time an ad leaves you thinking there's something you can't live without.