It has been trendy for several years to incorporate story into marketing, branding and advertising, either by integrating brands into a story or celebrating the concept of story/storytelling itself in connection with the brand.

In the early days of this blog, I started tracking these kinds of campaigns in a long-neglected (long, long) inside page.

While I rarely disparage any positive nods to story and storytelling, I have to say that sometimes these story-themed campaigns are a bit of a stretch.

Such is the case with a campaign for the Swiffer 360 Duster. An ad in a recent magazine starts out: “Your stuff tells a story. The knicknacks and photos that fill your home say something about you.” The ad continues for several more paragraphs, but the basic thrust is that if you don’t dust your tchotchkes — especially with the Swiffer 360 — you are denigrating your story. You are tantamount to a hoarder who can’t throw anything out and fills your home with meaningless, dusty clutter.

I appreciate the effort to celebrate story. But I gotta say, this campaign really makes me chuckle. The tagline? “Swiffer. Keep the memories. Lose the dust.”