When I first saw the ad below in the New Yorker, I was blown away by its use of story elements. The headline, “I had a hunch there was more to it,” sets up the story and draws the reader in. The fact that the rest of the story appears to be handwritten on lined paper (or perhaps an index card) gives it an authentic feel.
The “handwritten” copy is a bit hard to read, but the premise is that “Steve,” a successful executive affirms his hunch that there’s more to life than all his successes when he enters Columbia’s General Studies program. You can get a feel for it in a shorter version.
As much as I was drawn to the ad, my developing appreciation for what makes a story tells me the ad isn’t really a story. Tests and definitions established by folks like Karen Dietz, Shawn Callahan, and Sean Buvala would affirm that the ad doesn’t quite measure up as a story. Still, it has storied elements, and it isn’t hard to imagine more of the story from these beginnings.
Some readers, however, may find the executive protagonist, Steve, loathsome. That’s the view of Auden Schendler, who last year wrote that Steve is a sociopath. “He’s completely self involved,” Schendler writes. “He’s solipsistic to the point of toxicity.” The ad, Auden says, “speaks, frankly, to the worst inclinations of idle elite Americans, the clueless folks who’ve suddenly decided to read the classics — that’s their great mission in the world.”
In any case, I find the ad’s tagline, “Continue your story,” apt for an academic program that welcomes older adults.
