A crucial marketing takeaway from ‘The Princess Bride’

This ridiculous and clever, slapstick and intelligent, goofy and hilarious story is probably the last place you’d look for a brilliant marketing lesson.

Yet there’s a hidden gem too good to miss.

If you don’t know “The Princess Bride” (book published in 1973; movie debuted in 1987), it has thoroughly earned its fanatical cult following. The movie has an all-star cast, and they do a magnificent job of bringing to life this plot line: Peasant boy overcomes numerous obstacles on a quest to rescue princess from evil prince and achieve true love.

Here’s the scene all marketers should adore. In this scene, Westley (blond dude and the story’s hero) is just brought back from the brink of death by a pill from Miracle Max, and then Westley is immediately tasked with figuring out how to storm a heavily guarded castle.

Here’s the line that matters: “Why didn’t you list that among our assets in the first place?”