What Jaws Teaches Us About Creating Content With Heart and Substance

This is why most movie sequels bomb

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Years ago, I watched a TED talk with JJ Abrams:

It was mostly about the magic of weaving a sense of mystery into your storytelling. But he made a comment in the middle of the video that has always stuck with me. He talked about Jaws, and he showed his favorite scene from Jaws, said it was one his favorite scenes in any movie. It was a scene of a dad with his son at the dinner table. It was about a family on the verge of dealing with a divorce, and the impact it was having on each member of the family and their interpersonal relationships.

He further explained that this was the heart of great movies; the human moments that the characters go through. And he made the point that this is why movie sequels rarely work because they ‘copy the wrong stuff’. The Jaws sequels showed us more of sharks. That wasn’t what made Jaws great, it was the conflict and human emotions that the characters were dealing with.

The Crow movie franchise is another example. So far, the franchise has had 5 movies, but the original movie in 1994 is the only one that could be considered a box office success. I only saw the first movie, so I can’t comment on the others. But what I loved about The Crow, other than Brandon Lee’s performance as Eric Draven, was the bond between Eric and his girlfriend Shelly.

Throughout the movie, we are shown vignettes that give us a glimpse of the life Eric and Shelly had together. This is done so we can understand what was taken from Eric, and why he feels such intense rage to hunt down their killers.

Eric wanting to avenge his fiancee’s death adds a depth to the movie that elevates it above simply being a beat’em up flick.

Leveraging Social Media as a Storytelling Channel

When social media in its current form came on the scene around 2005 or so, it was driven by individuals. Blogs rose to popularity first, then centralized sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook began to popup. By 2010 or so, companies had begun to catch on to social media, and they did what companies tend to do when they encounter a new digital channel:

They tried to sell stuff with it. Companies made a mad dash to try to convert social media into a sales channel.

Let’s be clear: Social media was never intended to facilitate ecommerce. Sure, social media can and does drive sales, but it is, after all, SOCIAL media. Social media is about connecting people, not selling products.

When helping companies understand how to best use social media tools I tell them: Don’t focus on the tools, focus on the connections that the tools help facilitate.

If you think about social media as a way to form connections, then you get a better understanding of how the channel can be successfully leveraged.

For instance, while social media has never been an ideal channel for driving direct sales, it does do well as a channel for storytelling.

Whole Foods Deletes Its Instagram to Save the Bees

In 2018, Whole Foods’ Instagram account suddenly unfollowed everyone. Then it posted this blank image:

Immediately, speculation started as to what was happening here. This led many to believe that the Whole Foods account had been hacked. Note we already have storytelling taking place: People are inventing their own stories to explain what has happened.

Then Whole Foods followed a few celebrities: Beyonce, Sting, Jon Bon Jovi and Jerry Seinfeld. New information leads to new speculation: Now people began to assume, based on the new follows, that there might be a ‘bee’ connection at work here.

Then Whole Foods added a bee emoji to its IG account, then it posted 4 more blank images.

Then Whole Foods posted a video of one bee, with this note:

Whole Foods then posted another video, showing some of our favorite foods, and then explained that without the honey bee population, all these foods that we love, would vanish. It was a wonderful storytelling campaign that not only raised awareness of the value of the honey bee, but also shined light on foundations we can support which help protect the honey bee population.

This is a wonderful example of leveraging social media to tell a story. In this case, it was even a mystery that everyone could participate in and help solve. That element of wonder and speculation gave a reason to become invested in seeing this story play out. It also led to discussion and speculation, which meant more exposure for Whole Foods’ efforts.

Remember that social media functions as a channel to raise awareness. When you are raising awareness, by default you are exposing your brand, your company to a new audience.

Storytelling is a wonderful way to do this. Think of how many people had never heard of Whole Foods before the above campaign. For those people, that storytelling was their introduction to the brand. It would leave a very positive impression, most likely, and it would probably lead to those customers wanting to do business with the grocer.

Substack, thankfully, is a wonderful channel for facilitating storytelling. Even when you are dealing with non-fiction topics like business, etc, you can engage in compelling storytelling. For instance, when I explain concepts here in Backstage Pass, I will try to add a story that shows how companies are using this concept (How Whole Foods does storytelling on IG, for instance), or I will add a hypothetical example that is illustrated via a story.

Regardless, storytelling can greatly improve the reach and impact of your ideas. I’ll talk more about how to weave storytelling into your communications in future issues of Backstage Pass.

For now, I hope you have a wonderful week, and safe travels to those of you in the states who are celebrating Thanksgiving this week. Speaking of which, Thursday’s issue of Backstage Pass will cover the real story of Thanksgiving. I hope to see you then!

Mack