Opening the gate. The Fool, not the Hero The Fool’s Journey: a (brand’s) walk through the Major Arcana Case studies: brands that embrace the Fool Oatly: absurdity as strategy Monzo Bank: naïvete as transparency Bereal: anti-curated authenticity Startups in Beta Mode: constant Fools The Fool in your funnel. Surrender as strategy Launching Rebranding Experimenting A…
A story is never just about events. It’s about movement through change. That’s what makes it useful in marketing and why we still reach for the hero’s arc, even when it doesn’t quite fit. I. Campbell’s monomyth and the myth of universality II. Why the hero still (sometimes) holds III. When the arc breaks. Brands…
Fiction knows this. Marketing pretends not to The narrator is always constructed (yes, even yours) Shaping is not the same as deceiving Transparency beats illusion (but you still get to perform) Bonus prompt: Reverse-engineer the lie
Emotional truth vs. factual distortion Red flags. When story becomes strategy without soul 1. Trauma-trigger marketing 2. The testimonial trap 3. The false founder myth 4. Borrowed voices, misused power The literary ethics of copywriting The ethical storytelling checklist (save this) The ethical freebie or, why the Mad Libs Workbook doesn’t manipulate The stories you…