Warning: It's Saucy
Stories With Heart – a fortnightly corralling of the best storytelling insights, for people and organisations aiming to win hearts and minds by telling better, richer stories.
Hello story lovers, Sam Lightfinch here. Welcome to Stories With Heart. As a brand strategist and storyteller, I create narratives that resonate with people and drive organisational success.
Are you ready to barrel down the wormhole of story, and have your particles squeezed from your very fabric, like a brand namer trying to remove all the vowels in search of an available URL and social handle? Me too. LTS BGN.
🏆 Story of the week 🏆
Make Me A Pizza | Talia Shea Levin
Talia Shea Levin's latest short film, Make Me a Pizza, dishes up a satirical slice of surrealism by taking on the trope of a bored housewife seducing a pizza delivery man.
There’s cheese aplenty (both actual and metaphorical) alongside themes of class and workers' rights. This makes ‘story of the week’ for its sheer audacity and absurdity. It feels like one of those ideas that started life as a joke, but Levin had the determination to keep running at it. And, IMO, the best stories are the ones that explore the weird underbelly of the human condition.
Up to you whether you call this pizza porno or erotic edification.
Takeaway: A) Ask for the sexy delivery man B) Subverting familiar narratives with humour is a great way to create thought-provoking content and encourage audiences to reflect on underlying themes.
Warning: It’s SAUCY.
Place of the week
Snæfellsnes | The Place Bureau
Like requesting to borrow my mum’s car for an 800-mile round trip to a festival with three mates when I was 20, branding a place is a big ask. Because unlike a product or company, a place already has an identity. They are shaped by history, culture, geography and the people who live there.
Place branding and placemaking aren’t about creating something from scratch, but about uncovering and amplifying what’s already there. And that must be such a fine and precarious line to tread – trying to uncover the symbols and spirit that make a location unique while attracting visitors and strengthening local pride without turning it into a theme park version of itself.
Here’s a lovely example from The Place Bureau for Snæfellsnes in Iceland. It’s dripping with richness, depth and prettiness… Snæfellsnes in a perfectly branded nutshell. Anyone up for a visit?
Takeaway: This underscores the power of rooting narratives in local culture and environment.
Campaign of the week
Never Become A Former New Yorker | Street Easy | Mother
Friends ends with some of them leaving the city, right? Yeah, they grow up. And when you grow up, you leave. Never Become a Former New Yorker playfully warns of the potential regret that follows leaving the apple’s core.
Mother create authenticity and relatability by tapping into the shared experiences and emotions of New Yorkers. It's a reminder we’re drawn to stories centred around human experiences and truths.
Takeaway: By highlighting relatable moments and emotions, you can create stories that not only capture attention but also create a deeper connection.
Article of the week
Want To Tell Better Stories? | Matt Locke | The Communications Network
We’ve been told for years that great storytelling is the secret to standing out. But what if the real secret isn’t storytelling – it’s story-finding? That’s Locke’s premise. Too many stories today feel shaped by what’s expected rather than what’s real. Instead of manufacturing narratives to fit neat marketing frameworks, the best stories are the ones hidden in the people, places and moments we overlook.
Ask questions you don’t already know the answers to. Speak to people – the ones with the lived experience, not just the usual voices. The best stories aren’t always polished or obvious. They’re full of details that make an audience sit up and pay attention.
Takeaway: Story-finding isn’t just a technique. It’s a mindset shift. And the result? Richer, more surprising stories – the kind that actually stick.
Subversive hack of the week
The Swasticar | Some Legend (via Phil Blondé)
Remember 2020? The pandemic, Trump, Brexit. The unholiest of trinities. I’d wake up, and a few seconds of scrolling on my phone would surface a news headline strong enough to knock most of the hope out of me.
Kinda feels like we’re back there. I read about Bezos’ editorial plans for the WP this week, and I felt like a piñata at a kid’s party. But then I saw this, and it made me smile. Advertising wit with a rebellious spirit. It reminded me that us storytellers could be doing more to tell our evil overlords what we stand for.
Takeaway: Anyone got a H60 or a T30? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you definitely shouldn’t look at this and get any ideas.
My story of the week
Traffic Lights
Ford was in a bit of a pickle (financial crisis) when Alan Mulally took over as CEO in 2006.
Tasked with 3-point-turning fortunes around, he introduced a traffic light system for tracking projects. Green was great, yellow was okay, and red meant trouble. Simple, right?
No.
Ford had built up a boardroom culture of fear. The culture-story inside the company was that no one could admit weakness or fault. To do so was to be outcast.
And so all of the executives turned up to the first meeting with all green everything. Of course, nothing changed.
Then, Mark Fields, a senior executive, decided to test Mulally. Fields turned up to the next meeting with the launch of a new car marked red. There was no way, Fields thought, that Mulally would sign off on delaying the launch.
The room went quiet. But instead of being reprimanded, Mulally gave Fields a round of applause. And in that moment, a new chapter was written at Ford – everyone understood the company now valued transparency over fear, and problem-solving over blame.
By shifting the culture-story from defensiveness to honesty, Ford tackled its challenges head-on… and staged an incredible turnaround.
Takeaway: The most compelling narratives reveal problems, and work towards solving them. Whether in business or branding, creating a space where honesty is rewarded leads to stronger, more meaningful stories.
THE END(ISH)
Hopefully you’re here because you’re familiar with me, the writer named after a fictitious bird, and you’re not looking for the Panda Bear tune named after one.
If it’s the former, I’d appreciate it if you A) share this newsletter with someone who might like it, or B) check out my website.
If it’s the latter, go grab your headphones. Here’s Jabberwocky for you.
Love, Sam ❤️