Why Stories Stay With Us
Oct 8, 2023
5 min read
Updated: Aug 10
Identity, memory and storytelling: why we remember stories more than facts.
Stories have accompanied humanity ever since people began sharing experience. Long before knowledge was preserved in books or stored in digital archives, stories helped explain the world, pass on memory and make sense of complexity. They answered not only the question of what had happened, but, more importantly, why it mattered.
That role has never disappeared. If anything, it has become more important. The more information we have at our disposal, the greater our need to organise it into something meaningful. Facts describe individual events; stories reveal the connections between them. Perhaps that is why we seldom remember numbers or statistics, yet vividly recall the people, images and moments that gave those facts meaning.
Storytelling predates marketing
Today, storytelling is often described as a tool of digital communication. Yet the relationship between storytelling, popular culture and commercial communication goes back much further. Long before terms such as content marketing or brand storytelling were coined, film studios and companies were creating characters and narrative worlds that would reach far beyond their original context.
One of the best-known examples is Betty Boop. Created in the early 1930s within the commercial animation industry of Fleischer Studios, she began not as an advertising character but as a supporting figure in the Talkartoons series. Her popularity with audiences quickly propelled her into a series of her own and, eventually, turned her into a cultural icon. Betty Boop came to represent far more than entertainment: modernity, self-confidence and the image of a new, independent woman. Her story shows how a character can outgrow the medium in which she first appeared and become part of popular culture.
A few decades later came Calimero, the little black chick with half an eggshell on his head. Originally created for an Italian detergent commercial, the character soon escaped the confines of advertising. A television campaign evolved into an animated series, and a brand mascot became part of the childhood memories of several generations. The product gradually faded from view. The story endured.
As new media emerged, the forms of storytelling changed. What remained constant was the ability of compelling narratives to outlive their original purpose and become part of our shared cultural memory.
Whether through cinema, television or children's literature, memorable characters often accompanied audiences for decades. What people remembered was not the product itself, but the emotional connection they formed with its story.
When advertising becomes culture
Advertising characters have a long history in Switzerland. One of the best known is Globi, created in 1932 as a promotional character for the Swiss department store Globus and designed by Swiss illustrator Robert Lips. Before long, Globi had his own children’s magazine, Der Globi, and an entire fictional world began to grow around him. It was the illustrated books, however, that truly made him part of Swiss culture. Illustrated by Lips and read by generations of children, they remain classics of Swiss children’s literature today.
Knorrli followed in 1947, created for Knorr by Ticino graphic artist and painter Hans Tomamichel. Inspired by a mountain spirit from his native Bosco Gurin, Tomamichel gave the character a round face reminiscent of a soup plate — a witty nod to the products he was created to promote. Knorrli remained a familiar presence in Knorr’s advertising for decades and became one of the most recognisable advertising characters in Switzerland.
Globi went further. Over time, he outgrew his commercial origins and became an icon of Swiss popular culture. His stories took on a life of their own, far removed from the purpose for which the character had originally been created. Today, Globi is associated far more with childhood memories than with the department store that gave birth to him.
And this is perhaps where the real power of storytelling lies. Stories can outlive the purpose for which they were created. They become part of our cultural memory, retold and reinterpreted as each generation makes them its own. Eventually, the product fades into the background, while the story remains.
Perhaps a commercial story truly succeeds when it no longer feels like advertising.
Identity is built through stories
This observation extends well beyond marketing. People also understand themselves through stories. A life is not simply a sequence of events, but the meaning we assign to those events. Narrative transforms experience into identity.
The same is true of companies, institutions and organisations. Identity does not emerge from slogans or mission statements. It develops gradually through decisions, values and experiences that, over time, form a coherent narrative.
Communication can make that identity visible, but it cannot create it. A story becomes persuasive only when it reflects the reality from which it has grown.
Digital media have changed the way stories are told
Social media did not invent storytelling. They changed the conditions under which stories unfold.
In the past, organisations largely controlled their own narratives through advertisements, television commercials and corporate publications. Today, those narratives are shaped simultaneously across websites, social media platforms, customer reviews, podcasts and news coverage. Brands no longer tell their stories alone; they share them with countless other voices.
As a result, storytelling has become more demanding. Narratives cannot be fully scripted or controlled. They must remain open to dialogue, accommodate contradiction and evolve alongside the communities that engage with them. What ultimately matters is not originality, but credibility.
Stories create meaning
Perhaps this is storytelling's greatest strength. Stories do more than capture attention or sell products; they have been doing that for more than a century.
Their deeper purpose is to create meaning. They connect isolated pieces of information, make identity visible and help us navigate an increasingly complex world.
That is why memorable stories are not necessarily the most emotional or the most imaginative. They endure because they allow people to recognise something of themselves and to understand how individual experiences fit into a larger whole. That is what makes communication memorable.
Key Insight
Stories endure not because they explain products, but because people make them part of their own lives.
Martina Knecht
Text © Martina Knecht
Illustrations: Bang Bang, ink on paper mounted on cardboard, © 2001 Martina Knecht; Cover of Globis Weltreise (1935), Robert Lips © Globi Verlag (Imprint Orell Füssli Verlag AG); Knorrli advertisement, Hans Tomamichel (1948), © Knorr.
Videos: Betty Boop: Excerpt from a Fleischer Studios animated short. Character © Fleischer Studios, Inc.; Calimero: Excerpt from Carosello (1963), produced for Mira Lanza (AVA). Character created by Nino Pagot, Toni Pagot and Ignazio Colnaghi. © Pagot.
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