Case Studies
GMCH and Charlotte's Web
One of the hardest conversations a parent ever has with their young child or their sublings is one in which they have to explain the concept of dying. And that concept has never been more elegantly rendered than in E.B. White’s beloved children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web. When Paramount decided to make a live-action movie of the book the perfect high-profile media vehicle for GMCH to elevate its message had been found.
But tying into a major Hollywood release is not a simple or straightforward matter. GMCH was not big enough to do that on their own, so partnerships had to be formed, and all the disparate groups also had to benefit from the association. Our job—pitch the idea to all the potential partners and corporate sponsors and get them to agree.
I took the opportunity to acknowledge and leverage GMCH's strategic relationship with UCSF Children's Hospital and approached them to gauge their interest in partnering with us on a premiere Charlotte's Web in San Francisco in November of 2007. I also had a relationship at Paramount that began a long string of meetings, phone calls, emails, and FedEx packages, all of which eventually led me to the movie’s executive producer.
The premiere played at the Metreon in San Francisco, to a capacity crowd, complete with a VIP cocktail party prior to the screening. Most important, local awareness for George Mark Children’s House, UCSF Children’s Hospital, and the association with the movie and the partnerships that were created, all served to reinforce GMCH’s position as a model and thought leader in the newly minted pediatric palliative care field.
“Why did you do all this for me?” he asked. “I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.”
“You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.”
A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”
-Charlotte’s Web E.B. White
Next Case Study:
GMCH and NBC Skating Spectacular and Community Skate Day |
