Honest Fiction
A new age ad agency Mythological characters for brands

Every great brand has a myth.
We build yours.

We create a mythological character for your brand, then bring it to life in a series of ads. Real footage, AI or both.

For consumer brands investing $10K+/month in paid social.
See how it works
Concept film / 01

This is what a brand myth looks like.

Honest Fiction / The Wizard Who Could Sell Anything

A wizard who can sell anything, built by us from nothing. Self-initiated concept work; every brand in it is fictional.

The problem

Your ads look like everyone’s ads.

Creator holds product. Creator talks to camera. Swipe. Your customers remember the format and forget the brand, and every new ad you pay for starts again from zero.

Forgettable.The same formats run across every brand in your category, so the work never becomes yours.
Disposable.Each ad fatigues and gets replaced. Nothing carries forward to the next one.
Out of reach.A real brand mascot has meant a big agency, months of work and a budget most brands don’t have.
Why a character

Myths are the oldest memory device there is.

A character people recognise turns every ad into another chapter of the same story, so the attention you buy keeps adding up to one brand.

30%more likely to report profit gains: campaigns built on a recurring character, versus those without one.
4%of US ads use one. Almost nobody in your category is doing this.

Source: System1 analysis of the IPA Effectiveness Databank and System1 US Ad Ratings.

What you get

Your myth, built. Then brought to life.

Two stages. Here’s each one, shown with our wizard.

01

The myth.

Your character’s name, origin, look, voice and world, created for your brand and set down in a character sheet and bible, so it is itself in every ad.

Character sheet: the wizard, front, side and back views with close-ups
Character bible / excerpt
Name
The Wizard Who Could Sell Anything
Archetype
The magician
Nature
All-powerful, messy, fly-by-night. Always a little out of sorts.
Gift
He can sell anything to anyone.
World
Desert highways, a battered blue convertible and a trunk full of things to sell.
Character sheet: the hitchhiker
Supporting cast · the hitchhiker
Character sheet: the highway officer
Supporting cast · the officer
Character sheet: a coffee bean in a suit
Supporting cast · the bean
Product sheet: Sunwright coffee bag
Product sheet · Sunwright
02

Brought to life.

25 static assets, 1 hero video and 10 supplementary standalone videos starring your character, cut for every placement. Real footage, AI or both.

The hitchhiker buried in stacks of cash as the wizard waves his staff
Hero film
Two highway officers holding Sunwright coffee bags
New cast
The coffee bean family in a warm anime kitchen
New medium · anime

Then the world keeps growing: new chapters, new cast and new formats, on retainer if you want them.

The pilot

Two stages. One myth.

Start with the character. Bring it to life once you’ve approved it. Your deposit is fully refundable if you don’t.

Stage 01 · the myth $2,500 Deposit to begin
  • Name, origin and archetype
  • Look, voice and world
  • Character sheet and bible
  • Revisions until approved

Fully refundable. If you don’t approve your character, we refund the deposit in full.

Stage 02 · brought to life $7,500 After you approve the character
  • 25 static assets
  • 1 hero video starring your character
  • 10 supplementary standalone videos
  • Cut for 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1
  • Source files and character assets
By application only · 9 founding spots

Imagine what we could sell for you.

We’re new, and we’re choosing our first brands carefully. Nine founding clients, each with a myth built only for them.

5 short steps, about 2 minutes. We read every application ourselves and only take on brands we can make a real difference for.