You are not a ‘storyteller’, you’re pitching a toothpaste commercial
Sixteen Corners’ Mike Cardillo warns that the rush to declare every piece of creative a ‘story’ has simultaneously overvalued and undervalued its power.
The era of the story is upon us.
No longer confined to our lounge rooms, cinemas and nightstands, the connection economy sees fit to thrust stories in our pockets, hands and newsfeeds every hour of the day. It has become the necessity of the digital age, to the point where even Instagram has “stories”, lest a single photo not sufficiently convey how much happier you are than everyone else.
Such is the unprecedented ease of broadcasting a story, that every human whose job it is to sell stuff now thinks that selling is synonymous with storytelling, as though people wouldn’t do their holiday shopping unless spurred on by the tear-jerking fable of a lonely Christmas tree ornament.
May “storytelling” as an advertising buzzword die with 2017. Amen.
There is a role for storytelling, definitely. Especially in terms of presenting awkward information/facts/products/claims to the world. But I agree that storytelling has disappeared up its own bum.
Old Spice is a good example. It’s not a story. If it was, what would it be? An impossibly talented hero on a quest to educate ladies about what to look for in a partner? C’mon…
That’s theatre. It’s spectacle. It’s selling. Just not storytelling.