Are you telling the truth?

TL;DR: Great stories win because they show real human truth. Most ads avoid it - and that’s why we ignore them.

We spent the last 4 months producing our first feature film, Ana The Cleaner - a story about a house cleaner who suspects her boss murdered his wife and investigates it one week at a time.

We shot it over 16 days. I learned a lot.

But one huge lesson smacked me in the face on Day 1- and of course, it applies directly to B2B advertising.

I was directing a scene between Ana and her boss, working with the actors to make the performances feel real.

And “real” meant adding things we almost never allow in ads:

Shame.
Gullibility.
Fear.
Embarrassment.
Rudeness.

Actual human behavior.

That’s when it clicked:

These emotions are basically forbidden in advertising.

Instead, ads live in a narrow emotional range:

“Before the product” = mild frustration or overwhelm

“After the product” = happiness

That’s it.

No edge. No contradiction. No truth.

I’m not saying your spokesperson should be a jerk.

I am saying this:

If you want people to stop scrolling and pay attention, your work has to feel like real life - not a sanitized version of it.

Because the reason you love your favorite movies and TV shows isn’t just the plot.

It’s the humanity.

Messy. Flawed. Contradictory humanity.

And last time I checked - that’s exactly who your audience is.