What causes middle aged men to watch movies like Rocky and The Karate Kid for the umteenth time at 3:00 am?
Why are young children endlessly enchanted by Cinderella?
It’s because these stories have at their core the triumph of the underdog — one of the most captivating themes in all of storytelling.
And storytelling, when used appropriately, can also be a powerful weapon in your copywriting arsenal. Here’s a book you won’t read about on many message board forums, yet deserves top shelf placement in your library.
It’s called 20 Master Plots And How To Build Them. In it, you’ll find Master Plot #9: The Underdog Theme, as well as 19 others, including:
Masterplot #1: Quest
Masterplot #5: Revenge
Masterplot #6: Escape
Masterplot #17: Discovery
The author, Ronald Tobias, takes these 20 basic archetypes and illustrates how each works with numerous examples. At the end of each chapter is a checklist to make sure you’ve covered the key points of each plot.
Though 20 Master Plots was written with fiction writers in mind, it gives copywriters an angle to create ads every bit as compelling as Rocky.
Once you get the hang of it, you’ll learn which plots pack the most punch in specific markets. Here’s a fine example of the revenge theme being used in weight loss advertising.
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