Marketing minus the hype: Shared fictions

Posted by Mike O'Brien on May 11, 2026 in Postcards from the digital frontier | Leave a comment

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Welcome to our Marketing minus the hype Jam.
This episode: the shared fictions that built marketing, brands, and maybe civilisation itself.

There’s an uncomfortable truth sitting underneath almost every successful brand in the world.

People do not buy products alone.
They buy meaning.

A logo is ink.
A luxury watch tells the same time as a cheap one.
A coffee chain is still just coffee.
A trainer is rubber and fabric stitched together in a factory.

And yet somehow, some products become symbols.
Status.
Identity.
Belonging.
Hope.
Success.
Taste.
Ambition.

Why?

Because humans are the storytelling species.

One of the most powerful ideas in human history is that civilisation itself runs on shared beliefs.
Money works because people believe it works.
Countries exist because enough people agree they exist.
Corporations, laws, institutions, prestige, titles, even markets themselves… all depend on collective trust in invisible systems.

Marketing sits directly inside that reality.

Brands are shared fictions.

Not fake.
Not lies.
Something more complicated than that.

They are agreed meaning systems.

The moment enough people believe a brand stands for something, the brand gains power beyond the product itself.

That is why people queue overnight for launches.
Why luxury survives recessions.
Why tribes form around technology, fashion, football clubs and even coffee shops.

People are not only buying utility.
They are buying a story about themselves.

And this is where modern marketing becomes dangerous.

Because technology now allows organisations to manufacture belief at industrial scale.

Algorithms amplify narratives faster than humans can evaluate them.
AI generates persuasion faster than strategy.
Content multiplies faster than meaning.

The result?

A world full of signals, but increasingly short on substance.

This is the pivot from hype to help.

The real role of marketing is not to create empty attention.
It is to create meaning that people can trust.

The strongest brands do not simply manipulate perception.
They align story with reality.

The promise matches the experience.
The values match the behaviour.
The positioning matches the contribution.

Because eventually every shared fiction collides with reality.

And when it does, trust either compounds… or collapses.

That may be the biggest challenge facing marketers in the AI age.

Not whether machines can generate content.
They can.

Not whether automation can optimise campaigns.
It can.

The real question is whether organisations still stand for something meaningful underneath the narrative.

Because when every company can manufacture persuasion, authenticity becomes strategic.

And perhaps that is where the future of marketing shifts.

Away from endless noise.
Away from inflated promises.
Away from performance theatre.

And back towards something more human:

Shared meaning people genuinely want to believe in.

And there you have it.
Our jam is… Marketing minus the hype.