Chad Love: Buy a Diamond, Get a Rifle


Sometimes you come across an idea so profoundly brilliant there's really not much more you can say about it than "wow, that's brilliant."

Take this ad, for example. It's from my hometown newspaper (and my very first job as a writer), The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.

It's so simple. So devious. So genius. Buy earrings for her. Be the romantic hero. Bask in the warm glow of her unadulterated love. Slip the rifle into the safe when she's over showing off the earrings to your mother-in-law, you know, the same mother-in-law who warned her daughter she should find a nice dentist instead of marrying you, the shiftless, unrepentant gun nut.

See? Brilliant. Everyone's a winner. The wife's happy (if none the wiser), you've got a new rifle and for once the mother-in-law is left speechless.

But here's my question: Would you tell her? Would not telling her about the gun be dishonest, or merely an insignificant detail you just sort of, know...failed to mention?