Enough with the Fluff: Welcome to Storytelling Hell

By dint of trying to turn every organic yogurt into a Homeric epic and every SaaS software into a Shakespearian tragedy, the world of communication has tripped over its own tapestry of fables. Somewhere between "story-shilling" and disconnected marketing, it’s high time we came back down to earth.

We’re being served this nonsense everywhere, like an old advertising jingle that’s lost its soul: to sell, you apparently need to "tell a story". Add a hero, a conflict, a single tear, and presto—the act of buying becomes a mystical quest. The result? A saturation of syrupy narratives where the product vanishes behind the staging. It’s the "once upon a time" syndrome: by obsessing over turning everything into a legend, we forget the bare truth of what we’re actually selling.

The Fable and the Sledgehammer
The trap has a name: story-shilling. That awkward moment where manufactured emotion tries to mask a total lack of real value. In terms of feelings, it triggers nothing but crocodile tears. Today’s public has a razor-sharp bullshit detector; they can tell a tall tale from a mile away.

The Textbook Fail: The Pepsi & Kendall Jenner Effect
This is perhaps the ultimate example of storytelling gone wrong. In 2017, Pepsi tried to cast itself as the vanguard of social peace and civil rights through an ad featuring model Kendall Jenner. The public wasn't fooled: trying to hijack a complex narrative (social justice movements) to sell a can of soda is nonsensical and borders on the most cynical of insults. The campaign was met with a massive backlash. We saw the same reaction to Benetton's campaigns by photographer Oliviero Toscani, who notoriously used photos of death row inmates to sell sweaters...

Our Approach: Storydoing over Storytelling
At ID+P, we prefer reality over mirages. This is what we call storydoing. The idea is simple: the best story is the one your clients actually live, not a disconnected fantasy forced upon them.

Less Fiction, More Friction
Traditional storytelling often prioritizes idealized narratives that obscure the product’s true nature and how customers actually experience it. We believe, on the contrary, that it is essential to ground the narrative in reality... which in no way precludes dreams or emotions. After all, as the painter Fernand Léger once said: "Beauty is everywhere".

Clarity Over Novelty
One rule stands above the rest: prioritize a simple, intelligible message. An overkill of metaphors, allusions, and cryptic references—indecipherable to anyone but the director and the scriptwriter—only serves to alienate the core message. If, after three shots (or three paragraphs), the reader still doesn't understand what you do, don't overthink it: you’ve failed.

Too much fluff, too much fiction, too many detours... In a world saturated with manufactured tales, storytelling has its place, but it must never mask the reality of the product or generate fake emotions. Because ultimately, a story that merely shines without delivering value is nothing but a hollow promise. So, instead of spinning yarns, start living your own story.