Business · Fortune Technology
Consumers—fickle, distrustful, bored, overstimulated, conspiracy-leaning—have shed faith in government institutions
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Corporations, businesses and brands have raced into the arms of these gurus for hire—the podcasters, TikTokers, content creators and celebrity brand ambassadors—who have mastered the alchemy of low-information persuasion and can imbue their clients with borrowed meaning.
Key facts
- Numerous brands vow to unleash the unfathomable furies of the unconscious mind: Honda proffers “The Power Of Dreams,” LVMH is devoted to “The Art Of Crafting Dreams” and Disney Parks allow you to manifest “Where Dreams Come True
- Adidas promises “Impossible Is Nothing” if you slip into their footwear, which only works if you are not taking Skyrizi (“Nothing Is Everything”)
- But, given the Alice In Wonderland unreality of their modern world, perhaps The Storyteller can take a page from The King Of Hearts: “If there’s no meaning in it, that saves a world of trouble, you know, as they needn’t try to find any
- Today, by comparison, BMW boasts that it is “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” which elevates the suburban soccer wagon to the status of a teleportation device
Summary
Branding and marketing executives have always loved nothing more than seizing the latest, abstraction that can somehow bend the ever-changing Zeitgeist to their favor and tell a tale, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. In recent years, CEOs, CMOs and brand managers swooned over leverage, alignment, blue-skying, thought leadership, convergence, unleash, pivot, impact, 30,000 feet, bandwidth, best practices, innovation, breakthrough, people-first and, of course, paradigm shift. But a new shibboleth has seized the day.
Like all prophets, The Storyteller arrives at an auspicious moment in human history.