“The Beauty Inside” was a pioneering social film series from Intel and Toshiba, which not only challenged the notion of identity, but also the boundaries of audience participation. Beyond commenting or voting, contributors could take on the lead role of Alex by uploading footage of themselves – becoming part of a series with over 70 million viewers. The brands? The decades old “Intel Inside” idea got a new lease of life and Toshiba’s Ultrabook was a prominent feature in Alex’s unusual story. “At its best, the art of storytelling is a foundation of advertising in the digital age.” One problem with storytelling in the digital age is that, at its extremes, it has become a fad. Every Tom, Dick or Harriet describes themself as a storyteller. As our friend Stefan Sagmeister pungently remarked at a festival dedicated to storytelling: I think all the storytellers are not storytellers. Recently, I read an interview with someone who designs roller coasters and he referred to himself as a “storyteller”. “No, F***head, you are not a storyteller, you’re a roller coaster designer. Now some words of warning. It’s easy for a pseudo-science to grow up around storytelling. Plots can become formulaic. I have heard market researchers trying to “guide” a story back to a formula, which there was no evidence that any consumer wanted. And archetype theory, while a helpful context for advertising, can also be