21st Century Fables

Hi, it's Charlotte here.

‘Story as it turns out, was as crucial to our evolution - more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.’

- Lisa Cron, Wired for Story.

For tens of thousands of years, humans have leveraged the power of stories.
To pass on wisdom, to delight, to protect, to instil fear and hope alike.
They are no doubt a crucial part of our success as a species.

During the September ‘24 presidential debate, we witnessed a 21st-century fairy tale in the making. Trump made a controversial and now widely debunked statement, claiming that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were "eating the dogs" and "eating the cats," If you didn’t hear it first-hand, you would have no doubt heard the memes. It has all the ingredients of your classic fable. A ravenous monster, a threat to your family. A promise of a leader that can save you.

For most of us, the moral was a warning against power-hungry dangerous lies.
But for many, it will have succeeded in stoking the very fear that it was designed to.
It was sticky. Simple. Memorable. Repeatable.
As the subtitle of the Micro Script Rules by Bill Schley states:
'It’s not what people hear. It’s what they repeat.'

Humans love stories.
As a community of thinkers, designers and strategists we often see storytelling play out in the hero brands of our time. Particularly in the origin story.

21st-century fables like Nike’s waffle iron, where running coach Bill Bowman made a new flexible sole using his breakfast waffle iron as a mold are the stuff of legend. Matt Blitz notes ‘The old waffle iron is brown with rust and broken into pieces. Yet there it sits in a protective case, smack in the middle of Prefontaine Hall at Nike's World Headquarters near Beaverton, Oregon.’

Innocent Drinks asking customers at a music festival to throw their empty bottles into bins marked "yes" or "no" to tell them whether they should quit their day jobs to start making smoothies full-time. College dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak building their first computer, the Apple I, in a garage. They are simple, memorable, repeatable stories.

Every new business won’t have a great origin story.
But they can all write a new one, and many are, by pursuing a purpose.

Tony’s Chocolonely is on a mission to make the whole chocolate industry slave-free. Patagonia's founders announced in 2022 that it would be giving away 100% of its profits to protect the great outdoors and fight climate change. Dove’s Campaign for real beauty is battling unrealistic standards set by the beauty industry.

You'll notice they contain the elements of a classic fairy tale.

A monster to vanquish: modern-day slavery, climate change, unrealistic beauty standards.

A hero that is uniquely poised to vanquish it. And a promise of a happier ending.

The most important factor is that the story is authentic to your brand, and you pursue it in earnest.

Just imagine for a moment…

The epic tale of Frosties stepping up to save the tiger.

The legend of Tide investing in cleaning our oceans.

The odyssey of Amazon stepping up to protect… altogether now, the Amazon rainforest.

Now that would be a brand story we could believe in.

Most importantly they tell us a story about ourselves too.

That we care to be a tiny part of writing the future.

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