“And now little man, I give the watch to you.” — Christopher Walken’s Captain Koons to the young Bruce Willis’ Butch in Pulp Fiction

Long have I been aware of the intimate connection between branding and storytelling, and lately I’ve been doing some reading in an effort to formally cross-pollinate place branding with some concepts from another genre. The book I’m into now is  The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 3rd Edition by Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood story consultant.

Vogler bases his work considerably on Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, etc.), and I was struck by his identification of common principles and elements found in many stories, because I imagine the same kind of recurrences may be discovered in the relationships people have with brands and places.

Vogler doesn’t mention it, but take, for instance, the Hollywood scriptwriting convention called the ‘meet cute’: the way two characters who eventually become romantically linked first bump into one another; in that precise vein, doesn’t the way we first encounter a brand — especially a place brand — sometimes affect indelibly the course of our relationship with that brand?

Anyway, Vogler does a mythic journey analysis of Pulp Fiction, identifying the timeless elements in ALL-CAPS. Here’s the part that covers what happens in the film right after the memorable scene in which Walken gives the wristwatch to the boy (thus “fulfilling the DONOR function of the MENTOR” in Vogler-speak):

“A new and immediate CALL TO ADVENTURE is sounded the next morning as Butch discovers [his girlfriend Fabienne] has failed to retrieve his father’s watch from his apartment. Without consulting MENTORS, he overcomes his fear of being caught by [his SHADOW] Marsellus and goes to get the watch…CROSSING THE THRESHOLD into a SPECIAL WORLD of increased danger.

“After a careful APPROACH to his apartment, Butch takes possession of the watch, SEIZING THE SWORD. However, he encounters a THRESHOLD GUARDIAN sent by Marsellus to kill him….It’s a near-death ORDEAL for Butch, but it’s the tragic CLIMAX for Vincent.

“With the REWARD of the watch in his pocket, Butch hits THE ROAD BACK, trying to get to his girlfriend.”

And so on.

I’m fascinated by this. I feel — although I am RESISTING THE CALL right now — that I should conduct a narrative analysis of brands and place brands, and to return with the ELIXIR of useful insights. Would-be MENTORS and virtual SIDE-KICKS are welcome to aid my journey. SHAPESHIFTERS and CAMPFIRE SCENES will doubtless ensue.