Lately I’ve been reading a lot of fairy tales. You know, those short, sometimes even cruel stories that usually have an important message – a moral of the story. Among them is one of the bunny Zoki. Zoki is “killing” his father with various demands before he goes to sleep.
I have a five year old who is exactly like that. Before I tuck him in we first have to clean up and prepare the toys for bed, read a fairy tale, sing a song, then have another glass of water, then pee again, then bring an extra toy, cover up with a quilt, straighten up the quilt, blow in a handkerchief …
Aaaaaaa! I’m on the edge of my nerves, I tell you.
I’m trying to tell him that he’s just like Zoki – the bunny from the fairy tale. He gives me a long look, as if to say: What are you talking about. He doesn’t believe that the fairy tale is about him.
It gives me food for thought.
I test my better half. She’s afraid of spiders, and her panic screaming often has me running like crazy, to see what all the fuss is about, only to find a small spider. I tell her the story of the boy who cried wolf! You know the story – he lied all the time because there was no wolf, and when the wolf really came, no one came to help him. My wife gives me a long look, and I can see she is thinking why in hell I am talking about that fairy tale. She doesn’t believe that the fairy tale is about her.
I go a step further – toward my profession.
I meet with a couple of wannabe Slovenian marketers at a conference and tell them a fable from the world of advertising:
Once upon a time there was a guy named Brand Manager. He used to decrease the fees of his agencies with pitches to which he invited twenty and more agencies. He gave them bad briefs, impossible deadlines, and ambiguous feedback. In the end, he wasn’t the one who made the decisions, but his boss who thought the worst of the agencies. He would belittle and tore up the ideas agencies presented, or would ruin them with his additions. He was not all that successful, and he put the blame on ineffective ads that were – he would say – only for the image, and they needed sales.
The whole crew had heaps of fun, and readily agreed with me. One knows a guy exactly like that from the story. Another told a similar story about the chief of marketing at a large advertiser. The third ironically said that because of people like that advertising has bad reputation.
Not one of them thought even for a moment that the fairy tale is about them. And I’m no longer puzzled by this. The pattern is obvious. My little dork, my wife, the whole profession … they all reacted the same way. Given that we’re in the business of storytelling, it’s really sad that people no longer believe in fairy tales.
What about me? I can’t help myself. I still believe in fairy tales.
(Boštjan Prijanović is the CEO of New Moment Y&R Ljubljana, founder of the BP Communications Marketing School, board member of the Association of Slovenian Advertising Agencies)
