The art of practical storytelling: Quest, Rebirth and Metaphors
Final two story plots. And the two mountain metaphor to organise stories
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Some of you have mentioned that there have been too many storytelling posts lately. It's like too much Heeng (Asafoetida) in dal (lentils). At first, the hit of Heeng to your nose is interesting, but then the flavour overwhelms you, and you stop tasting the dal.
To those of you who have stopped tasting the dal, I get it.
But to truly master anything, one has to become obsessive. When I write, I OCD over one topic a week. Storytelling has consumed me far longer because it has depths none of us can plumb in one lifetime.
OCD with me in this last article in the Practical Storytelling series. I promise it’s the last one.
Here’s what’s coming up:
The last two story plots - Rebirth and The Quest. I’ll share six marketing examples, three of which I led as a client.
Story plots mirror our lives. We’ll see how through David Brooks’ Two Mountain Theory.
If you’re on a journey to find something precious and come out transformed, you’re living The Quest.
If you go with the flow (even when it’s rocky) and change as a person, you’re in the Rebirth plot.
The Rebirth plot is all about personal transformation.
A hero or heroine falls under a ‘dark spell.’ Sometimes, it’s literal, like in Sleeping Beauty or The Beauty and the Beast. But mostly, it’s metaphorical - a character flaw, a blind spot. Remember Scrooge in A Christmas Carol? He transforms from a miserly, selfish man to a generous and compassionate man.
Let’s apply this to marketing.
In marketing, ‘the dark spell’ may be time away from your brand or product
In the real world, like in A Christmas Carol, consumers live with a blind spot, until a brand points out that there is a better way. They need to be jolted out of inertia. Often, a voice of reason or an alter ego does the job (like the three ghosts of Christmas).
Take this Maggi ad, which I was a part of. The son’s wisdom challenges his dad’s old-fashioned view that cooking is only a woman’s job.
A second tactic is when brands support the ‘rebirth’ milestones in consumers’ lives.
Five life stages change us forever - starting college, getting our first job, marriage, having kids, and becoming empty nesters. It’s as if we are reborn each time.
We draw support from different products and brands through these times.
This Nescafe repositioning that I was a part of started with the idea that college time is crucial. Life becomes fast-paced, stakes rise, and the need to stay alert grows. That’s when Nescafe's rocket fuel helps.
Any life stage shift demands change. What I love about this Dalda ad is it puts the responsibility of change on the mother-in-law, not the daughter-in-law.
The Quest is about acquiring something.
The hero or heroine, often with friends, sets out to acquire something important at a far-off location. They face enemies, temptations and obstacles along the way.
The Odyssey and The Lord of the Rings are classic examples.
Let’s apply this to marketing.
The magic words here are time and transformation. This plot is perfect for when your product or service is meant to be used over a long time, like a trip booking app, a nutrition supplement, or a coaching service.
Quest for excellence.
Dyson stands for excellence and innovation. It is already a market leader, but its founder and chief scientist James Dyson, is on a quest keep improving his inventions. This ad shows us how he has reinvented the vacuum once again.
I share the Dyson ad to show that marketing based on this story plot does not have to be emotional. It can also be hi-tech and product-forward.
Quest to discover greatness.
A brand can unknowingly spark greatness. This ad from John Lewis is a personal favourite. It’s a fictionalised account of Elton John's quest to become Elton John that starts when his mom buys him a piano for Christmas.
Could The Quest and Rebirth be combined?
Or is my mind playing tricks?
This is a behaviour change campaign I worked on at PepsiCo.
Most teenage girls in India suffer from Iron deficiency anaemia. Unfortunately, they don’t even know it. When we met girls in Guntur (our test market), we learned they had big dreams. They envisioned their next few years as a quest that would transform their lives — they wanted to study hard, learn a skill, earn their own money, and marry well.
But we knew that before started their quest, they would have to be reborn as healthier, iron-rich, energetic versions of themselves. This ad was our attempt to create awareness and trigger new food habits.
Watch part 2 here.
Story plots are like blueprints for our lives.
Stories are not just popcorn-laced Bollywood flicks we forget about after the credits roll. They’re real, living things. Each one of us has, is or will live out these story plots.
When we live and breathe these plots, we grow and change. Overcoming a monster might show us we are tougher than we thought. Laughing through a comedic situation might help us make light of the heavy.
But the significance of story plots is deeper than that. They map our journey from the first mountain to the second.
In his book The Second Mountain, David Brooks says that our lives span two mountains. The first mountain is the first half of our lives. It’s all about chasing success—what he calls resume virtues. We want what the world tells us to want—career, money, status.
There comes a point when we hit a wall. We realize these things don’t really make us happy. And we have a full-blown mid-life crisis.
We start searching for answers, and that’s when we start scaling the second mountain. This time, we’re chasing what truly matters—leaving a legacy, helping others, or finding spirituality.
Justin analyses stories on his YouTube channel. He says the story plots map to David Brooks’ two mountains.
This connection fascinated me, and as I thought more about it, I realized that these also tie into the Hindu Ashram system, which divides a human lifespan into four stages, each with specific duties (Dharmas).
Here’s how all this interconnects.
The first five plots fit the first mountain. We grow up, acquire skills, overcome childhood baggage, find our footing, earn material success and build a family. These perfectly fit the first two Ashrams — Brahmacharya (the student) and Grihasta (the householder).
Then, mid-life hits us with a crisis—a tragedy—and we tumble into a valley.
In our quest to discover what this all even means, we go on a quest. We cross the valley and start climbing the second mountain. This maps to the Vanaprastha Ashram, where we start serving the community while searching for our spiritual core. We start cultivating Eulogy virtues.
Finally, we experience the Sannyas Ashram, a spiritual rebirth— we detach from the material world and prepare to move on.
I am constantly fascinated by how everything we know interconnects.
And that’s why I write. To discover and then chew on these connections.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week.
Sources
The two mountain theory from Justin’s YouTube channel