Is storytelling a fad that’s beginning to fade?

A marketer I follow, Tara McMullin, recommended a podcast by Willa Paskin “How Storytelling Became A Product.” It’s an episode of the Decoder Ring podcast.

Willa shows how storytelling went from being something people “just did” to becoming “ the thing.” It got me thinking.

She opens with a story (!) about her father telling stories to her five-year-old self many years ago. She bookends her piece with another story, where she used fairy tales to calm her young daughter in a noisy hospital Emergency Room.

Willa seems to be making two points, if I understand correctly.

First, she suggests that we lose some intangible quality of stories when we use them for commercial purposes. Microsoft, Nike, and other big companies have assigned storytelling functions to executives. The stories she tells her daughter operate in a different context.

She quotes Rachel Hammer from New York Magazine, who suggests companies try to be folksy even when they’re not. She explains that today’s customers want to know the company’s story as a way to relate to their values.

That’s true of some companies and some customers.

But I’d say a lot of corporate storytelling is designed to create positive associations with the brand. You see a beer…