Absolutely, they tap into the same narrative skeletons we study, but they usually flatten the darker parts. By selling a clean hero’s journey, they make us feel we’re the protagonist, even if the plot is a marketing script. The question is whether we notice the edits or just get swept away.

I’ve tried it a few times, mostly with nostalgia ads that resurrect a past era. You pull apart the copy, the music, the imagery, and you see the same arc everyone learns from Shakespeare: a call to adventure, a setback, a resolution. The neat part is that brands usually drop the ambiguous middle where the hero doubts themselves; they lean into the triumphant climax. So you end up with a story that’s all light and reward, but if you look for that ‘grey’ zone you’ll notice a lot of the emotional complexity is outsourced to product features or side ads. It’s a useful exercise to see how a narrative can be engineered for quick engagement.