In North America, story telling has taken on a more formal role within companies. Check out this article
How to Use Storytelling in Business to Build Captivated Audiences
Beyond business, story telling also has other functions in a society and has been a topic of research in anthropology. Story telling serves other functions in society besides entertainment. Wikipedia has a good run down on the topic.
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Thank you for the source, I have read the article.
Yes, nice stories are made up and in particular the trend of "saving the world and being a do-gooder" is used. "Here a problem: there the solution." "Do you want to be one of the good guys or the bad guys?"
A cheap trick, in my opinion. But it works excellently and uses people's deep dependence on a social group. Which hardly exists as such in real, tangible life. The clan, the tribe, the extended family are a thing of the past. The mantra of collectivism has taken its place.
In this virtual advertising world, the view into the past is glorified just like the view into the future and the present is always something that has to improve, a promise of "more goodness, humanity, cleanliness, security and wealth".
However, the promises do not really materialise and remain as "yet to be achieved". Now merely with other guiding figures. Whereas it used to be the celebrity and superstar, now it is supposedly the girl, the man next door.
The stories themselves become humbler, in line with the zeitgeist they themselves have created, but it does not change the facts and functions of commerce.
The beautiful simple country life, the cosy business culture, it is only possible for a few who are classy as figureheads. The rest of us, who can't afford our own piece of land, cram ourselves into the big cities and talk ourselves into "staying away from nature" to protect it.
I just brushed upon the wiki entry, there is lot to be read of other aspects of storytelling which I began to prefer myself.
Looking back at ones own life, in particular when you get older, it's a form of becoming and staying real, if you have collected real time stories and adventures yourself. Just the imagination that my life would mostly consist of being in front of a screen, there would nothing be left to tell.
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Whether it's a cheap trick or not is irrelevant to me. I'm talking about story telling as an anthropological, psychological, and sociological process. For example, as an anthropologist, I can ask, what purpose does story telling serve a culture? As a psychologist, I could ask, what brain mechanisms allow us to produce a story? As a sociologist, I can investigate how the norms and behaviors of a culture are transmitted through narrative. It's quite a rich field of study. Take a look at this article for further reading- Anthropology: Storytelling and Narrative Anthropology.
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I was responding to the first article you brought to my attention. I expressed a view on that.
What is it that you are getting at, can you put it in a question to me personally or clothe it in a view of yours without asserting to me the irrelevance of my view?
Can you give me personal examples so that I get the opportunity to even know what you are actually talking about?
I was addressing what you brought up in the second sentence of your comment to my initial response to your story above.
I had mentioned that I worked in the media sector and that public relations, just like advertising, thrives on narrative. I made various points of criticism about this.
The relevance of your thoughts and mine is there for me, otherwise we wouldn't have to be talking to each other.
However, I have difficulty engaging in a conversation that takes me from one link to another without getting your personal experiences and interpretations.
To the extent that you don't wish to share these, just say so and I'll back off. ... But maybe you already have? Not sure.
What I'm getting at is that this field of story telling and narrative is extensive and has been studied in various fields and disciplines including anthropology, psychology, sociology, economics, etc. So, calling something a "cheap trick" diminishes that extensive body of work and tells me that you're not familiar with the field. So, I'm pointing you towards resources that can help you better understand the topic and issues involved.
I know this comes across as boring, dry, and pedantic, but when discussing this type of topic, I prefer to leave my personal opinions out of it unless I'm familiar with the field. For example, I know very little about PR, so imagine if I said something like, "PR is a bunch of hogwash." This would tell you that I'm not familiar with PR, as a field and discipline, and so unless I bring my knowledge up to date, then there is little point in engaging in discussion and debate because I don't have a good frame of reference from which to discuss the issue.
I referred to marketing, that was the first link you directed me to. It was strategic talk from my point of view.
The most important tool you learn in the PR and advertising industry is that you work with stories.
If you have a product/message that you want to be accepted by as many people as possible, the first thing you learn is that this product or service has to be charged with emotions (morality can be a major player here). These are attached to so-called "values". I shared with you an experience I had in the field of my profession, pointing out the "cheap trick". The products were boring, stupid, cheap, or just ordinary etc. But we turned them into something desirable and we only managed to do that by creating narratives around the products. Illusions, a promise of a good life, etc.
I internalised this way of working and marketing so much that I still know by heart which terms of "values" we were supposed to equip the brands and companies with. The other means is to repeat these terms in the context of the stories, and to do so penetratingly.
Among us colleagues, we used to joke and say that no one really needed what we were working on, thus maintaining a certain distance and humour towards our own activity.
You wouldn't be insulting me or misdescribing my work if you said that "PR is a bunch of hogwash." Because it is.
I thought I had already differentiated that I didn't make that transfer in other areas you mentioned here.
You leave me to assume that I have insulted you because I cannot diminish anyones work when I have not even read it. I may have a look when my time and mood directs me that way. Let's stay open.
I think you raise some great points and your personal experience is relevant to the issues. Given that narrative studies is not your field of expertise, then it's understandable that you won't use the terms and ideas in your discussion. I was probably reacting to the dismissive tone of the discussion. I'm aware that implementing ideas from one field (e.g., story telling) to another (e.g., marketing) has its limitations, but rather than dismiss the ideas as cheap tricks, I think it's more interesting to identify those limitations and discuss them within the appropriate framework of both fields. This is something that it's really beyond the scope what I actually wanted to do in this post, which was write a story about two sisters having a cat fight over vaccines. :)