Conflict is NECESSARY for a good story
That might seem like an obvious statement. “Well duh! That’s the first lesson you learn in Storytelling 101!”
So why do so many brands forget this basic fundamental? Why are so many commercials so boring?
In this video, creative mastermind Luke Sullivan explains how you’ve got to find conflict to tell an interesting story. And how your big idea should be succinct enough to fit on a sticky note.
“The problem is, much of advertising we don't start from a point of view of a story people care about. We just start from a spec sheet of product benefits that we get from the client. But when we cut right to the products, nobody cares.
Clients wonder why can't you just take this nice positive statement like “Fresh Food Means Better Health” and just say that.
“Fresh Food Means Better Health” is not a problem. It's a solution. And cutting right to the solution is like cutting right to the end of the movie. Everything is all wrapped up! Everything's fine! The cowboy rides off into the sunset!
The problem is that when everything's okay, none of us care.
Figure out who (or what) is your bad guy. This is a way to tease out possible narrative structures from just a creative brief. You can do with any product any service any category. Find a protagonist and an antagonist, and you’ll find yourself with two characters on a stage. Then you'll have something people may want to lean into and hear what happens in your story.”
Too often, the client wants us to just show Shiny Happy People and avoid any semblance of conflict. But there’s no movie going on there. The viewer will look at it and think, “I don’t have to be involved.”
But as creatives, we have to sit down and ask ourselves, “What is the truest you can say about your product or category?” NOT what the research says, not what people want to hear, not what you think is cool about it… but what is the TRUEST thing?
Generally, that gets you to an area of emotion. It gets you into the vicinity of conflict. Nobody wants to watch a Batman movie without a villain. Bad guys are always more interesting.
You never see a headline that says, “PLANE LANDS SAFELY AT AIRPORT.” It’s good that the plane landed safely! But I don’t feel compelled to engage in that story.
People are wired to LOVE stories. The Greeks had a phrase called “in medias res” or “in the middle of things.” It’s a narrative technique where a story begins in the middle of the action, rather than at the beginning. The tension is set up very quickly. We are riveted by this. We cannot get enough of conflict.