Carl Jung warned us long ago,
“People don’t have ideas. Ideas have people.”
And this is the part of marketing we still don’t talk about enough.
We like to think we shape campaigns…
But campaigns shape culture.
We think we influence consumers…
But the narratives we create influence identity.
We think marketing is persuasion…
But at its core, marketing is meaning-making.
We aren’t just selling products.
We’re sharing stories that help people find their place in an overwhelming world.
Every brand becomes a compass—pointing toward identity, belonging, aspiration.
And every campaign becomes a modern myth.
A small narrative people quietly adopt:
“This is who I am.”
“This is what I value.”
“This is where I fit.”
But here’s the paradox:
The better we get at telling stories, the easier it becomes to believe our own.
That’s when the real work begins.
Critical thinking in marketing starts when we question the myths we build.
When we pause long enough to ask,
Why do people need what we’ve taught them to want?
Not to undermine our work but to elevate it.
To honor the responsibility that comes with shaping identity and desire at scale.
When we interrogate our own stories, we create brands with more sincerity, more humanity, and more lasting impact. We stop adding noise and start creating signals.
We stop manipulating and start meaning-making. We stop pushing products and start helping people become more of themselves. Joseph Campbell put it beautifully: “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” Great marketing should move people closer to that truth, not farther away.
Are the stories you’re telling helping people become who they truly are?