But what if I don’t want to tell you my story?

I saw a Benjamin Moore banner camofluaging itself blending in with the Excite page and the overused Tell us your story buzzphrase. Whenever an agency wants to sell social media in lately, they usually pitch it to the client as “We don’t have to throw away the microsite, we’ll just add in a share your story component!” (C’mon, don’t lie, you know it’s true.) Sucker that I am, I clicked.

Had Ben been personifed as brand icon come to life like creepy Quaker Oats guy? Was it actually guys named Ben telling painting horror stories? Intrigue! Suspense! Ehhhh, no. It was basically a play on Behr’s color selector.

Which isn’t a bad thing. The interface is definitely cooler than theirs, even though Color Smart is more practical and somewhat easier to access than Moore’s preview area. (Basically, pick a color combo, see a room change.) What Moore did which I liked though is took the moods of colors, pretty much like a design 101 exercise from art school. “If the word bloggers were a color, what would it be?”

By the time I got around to the story part however, the color mood thing was the stronger theme already etched into my head. I wanted to see that taken further. Two themes, while strong enough on their own, might be trying to do too much together. I would’ve brought in some of those mood/word color themes in the ads instead of the story concept.

Here’s two problems with the story idea in general:

1) What if I just need info. I’m not here to contribute to your community. I’m not saying that can’t have value for the right product, but does every product require a community angle to it? Do we really need a mobile toilet paper community to share wiping stories and locations? “Dear P&G, I never thought this would happen to me.” In this case, I just want advice on which colors go with my rug. (Besides, in an emergency? I don’t care if the place looks like the stalls from Trainspotting and Desperado combined, I’m using it.)

2) Most people suck at telling stories. Forget writing them in a way so compelling it holds your interest. That’s why social nets suck; too many would be Hemingways. Unfiltered B-roll may be true, honest and genuine, but it still needs an editor. In other words, less is Moore. (Ouch™)