1. Advertising Archetypes
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Below are descriptions of the twelve archetypes that are most common in advertising and marketing.
Each archetype has three levels, with Level 1 being the simplest and least moving form of the archetype
and Level 3 being the most complex and appealing.
The Innocent
The Explorer
The Sage
The Hero
The Outlaw
The Magician
The Regular Guy / Gal
The Lover
The Jester
The Caregiver
The Creator
The Ruler
The Innocent
Desire: Experience (live in) paradise
Goal: Be happy
Fear: Doing something wrong or bad
Strategy: Do things right
Gift: Faith and optimism
Call: A desire for purity, goodness and simplicity
Level 1: Childlike simplicity, naïve, dependent, obedient, trusting, idyllic
Level 2: Renewal, positive, reinventing, reframing, cleansing, reentering promised land
Level 3: Almost mystical sense of oneness, whereby innocence comes from values and integrity, not
outer experience; being, not doing
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2. Shadow: Denial, repression
The Innocent helps us to lead a purer, simpler, more peaceful life. The Innocent brings renewal, faith and
optimism to our lives, cleansing us from our everyday worries and helping us to relax and be happy.
This archetype ranges in depth from a simple, childlike innocence to reinventing and renewing oneself in
order to reenter the “promised land.” At its most powerful, the Innocent embodies a sense of wholeness
and oneness in which a person’s sense of purity and peace comes from his or her inner values instead of
outside actions.
The Explorer
Desire: Freedom to find out who one is through exploring the world
Goal: To experience a better, more authentic, more fulfilling life
Fear: Getting trapped, conforming, inner emptiness, nonbeing
Strategy: Journey, seek out and experience new things, escape from entrapment and boredom
Trap: Aimless wandering, becoming a misfit Gift: Autonomy, ambition, ability to be true to one’s own
soul
Call: Alienation, dissatisfaction, restlessness, yearning, boredom
Level 1: Hitting the open road, going out into nature, exploring the world
Level 2: Seeking one’s own individuality, becoming fulfilled
Level 3: Expressing individuality and uniqueness
Shadow: Being so alienated that one can’t find any way to fit in
The Explorer invites us to find ourselves by journeying through the world around us. By exploring the
variety of experience that the world has to offer, we escape entrapment and boredom while discovering
ourselves reflected in the world around us.
At its simplest, the Explorer archetype embodies the urge to hit the open road and explore the world
around us. At deeper levels of the archetype, the journey can become a way to find one’s own
individuality and express one’s uniqueness.
The Sage
Desire: Discovery of truth
Goal: To use intelligence and analysis to understand the world
Fear: Being duped, misled – ignorance
Strategy: Seek out information and knowledge, become self-reflective, understand thinking processes
Trap: Can study issues forever and never act
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3. Gift: Wisdom, intelligence
Call: Confusion, doubt, deep desire to find the truth
Level 1: Search for absolute truth, desire for objectivity, looking to experts
Level 2: Skepticism, critical and innovative thinking, becoming an expert
Level 3: Wisdom, confidence, mastery
Shadow: Dogmatism, ivory tower, disconnection from reality
The Sage encourages us to use our intellect to understand the world around us and, in turn, better
understand ourselves. By seeking out information and developing the intellect, the Sage helps us discover
essential truths about the world and ourselves.
The archetype of the Sage progresses through a desire for truth to skepticism and critical thought about
the world around us, emerging in its most powerful form as one possessing wisdom or some nugget of
absolute truth.
The Hero
Desire: Prove one’s worth through courageous and difficult action
Goal: Exert mastery in a way that improves the world
Fear: Weakness, vulnerability, “wimping out”
Strategy: Become as strong, competent and powerful as one is capable of being
Trap: Arrogance, developing a need for there to always be an enemy
Gifts: Competence and courage
Call: The bully kicks sand in one’s face or someone tries to intimidate or abuse a weaker person; a
challenge beckons; someone needs help defending him or herself
Level 1: The development of boundaries, competence, mastery, expressed through achievement,
motivated and tested through competition
Level 2: Like a soldier, doing one’s duty for country, organization, community or family
Level 3: Using strength, competence and courage for something that makes a difference to the world
Shadow: Ruthlessness, obsessive need to win
The Hero uses his strength in order to improve the world. The Hero constantly strives to become stronger
and more competent in order to have the power to create positive change in the world.
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4. The Hero archetype in its most basic form involves the development of skills and competence. The more
advanced Hero uses these skills to protect his or her family, community and country, and the most
developed Hero seeks not only to protect, but also to change and improve the world.
The Outlaw
Desire: Revenge or revolution
Goal: To destroy what is not working (for outlaw or society)
Fear: Being powerless, trivialized, inconsequential
Strategy: Disrupt, destroy or shock
Trap: To go over to the dark side, criminality
Gift: Outrageousness, radical freedom
Call: Feeling powerless, angry, mistreated, under siege
Level 1: Identifying as an outsider, dissociating from values of the group / society in a way that defies
conventional behavior and morality.
Level 2: Behaving in shocking and disruptive ways
Level 3: Becoming a rebel or revolutionary
Shadow: Criminal or evil behavior
The Outlaw disrupts the status quo when change is needed. By destroying the social institutions that are
not working, the Outlaw creates the opportunity for better, more effective methods to replace them.
In the beginning, the Outlaw dissociates him or herself from society in a way that shocks and confronts
conventional values. At the deepest level of the archetype, the Outlaw uses his or her power to disrupt
the system to become a true revolutionary, overturning obsolete or ineffective establishments in order to
create a new order.
The Magician
Desire: Knowledge of fundamental laws of how the world and universe work
Goal: Make dreams come true
Fear: Unanticipated negative consequences
Strategy: Develop vision and live it
Trap: Becoming manipulative
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5. Gift: Finding win-win outcomes
Call: Hunches, extrasensory or synchronistic experiences
Level 1: Magical moments and experiences of transformation
Level 2: The experience of flow
Level 3: Miracles, moving from vision to manifestation
Shadow: Manipulation, sorcery
The Magician transforms the world. Using an understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe, the
Magician finds ways to make his or her dreams into reality.
At the lower levels, the Magician archetype involves moments of clarity or transformation. The second
level of the archetype involves the experience of “flow,” a sense of oneness with and understanding of
the universe. At its most potent, the Magician archetype is capable of miracles, transforming reality to
reflect a vision or dream.
The Regular Guy / Gal
Desire: Connection with others
Goal: To belong, fit in
Fears: Standing out, seeming to put on airs, being exiled or rejected
Strategy: Develop ordinary solid virtues, the common touch, blend
Trap: Give up self to blend in, in exchange for only a superficial connection
Gift: Realism, empathy, lack of pretense
Call: Loneliness, alienation
Level 1: The orphan, feeling abandoned and alone, seeking affiliation
Level 2: The joiner, learning to connect, fit in, accept help and friendship
Level 3: The humanitarian, believing in the natural dignity of every person regardless of his or her
abilities and circumstances
Shadow: The victim who is willing to be abused rather than be alone, or the lynch-mob member, willing
to go along with abuse in order to be one of the gang.
The Regular Guy / Gal wants to fit in. By developing ordinary, solid virtues and avoiding any form of
pretense or pomposity, the Regular Guy / Gal achieves a sense of belonging in his or her chosen
environment.
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6. The Regular Guy / Gal archetype begins as an orphan who seeks somewhere to belong. At the second
level, the Regular Guy / Gal learns to connect with others, accept help and develop friendships. The
highest level of the archetype is the humanitarian who believes that all people have value regardless of
their abilities or circumstances.
The Lover
Desire: Attain intimacy and experience sensual pleasure
Goal: Being in a relationship with the people, work, experiences and surroundings they love
Fear: Being alone, a wallflower, unwanted, unloved
Strategy: Become more and more attractive, physically, emotionally and in every other way
Trap: Doing anything and everything to attract and please others, losing identity
Gifts: Passion, gratitude, appreciation, commitment
Call: Infatuation, seduction, falling in love (with a person, idea, cause, work or product)
Level 1: Seeking great sex or a great romance
Level 2: Following one’s bliss, committing to who and what one loves
Level 3: Spiritual love, self-acceptance, the experience of ecstasy
Shadow: Promiscuity, obsession, jealousy, envy, Puritanism
The Lover desires to have strong relationships with the people that he or she loves. The Lover constantly
strives to make him or herself more desirable physically and emotionally in order to become attractive to
others.
The Lover archetype begins as a search for sex or romance, and develops into a commitment to the
people, ideas and experiences that he or she loves. At its height, the archetype embodies self-acceptance
and pure, spiritual love.
The Jester
Desire: To live in the moment with full enjoyment
Goal: To have a great time and lighten up the world
Fear: Boredom or being boring
Strategy: Play, make jokes, be funny
Trap: Wasting one’s life on trivial things
Gift: Joy
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7. Call: Ennui, boredom
Level 1: Life as a game, fun
Level 2: Cleverness used to trick others, get out of trouble and find ways around obstacles,
transformation
Level 3: Life experienced in the moment, one day at a time
Shadow: Self-indulgence, irresponsibility, mean-spirited pranks
The Jester lives with a full appreciation of each moment. Through making jokes and being playful, the
Jester enjoys life and lightens up the lives of those around him or her.
The basis of the Jester archetype is that life should be fun. The Jester archetype uses cleverness to trick
others and find ways around obstacles, and at its highest level, the archetype is a life experienced and
enjoyed in the moment.
The Caregiver
Desire: Protect people from harm
Goal: To help others
Fear: selfishness, ingratitude
Strategy: Do things for others
Trap: Martyrdom of self, entrapment of others
Gift: Compassion, generosity
Call: Seeing someone in need
Level 1: Caring for and nurturing one’s dependents
Level 2: Balancing self-care with care for others
Level 3: Altruism, concern for the larger world
Shadow: Martyrdom, enabling, guilt-tripping
The Caregiver helps and protects others. By serving others and supporting them emotionally and
financially, the Caregiver helps others achieve their goals.
At the lower levels, the Caregiver archetype involves caring for one’s friends and family, and learning to
balance caring for others with caring for oneself. At its pinnacle, the archetype involves an altruistic
concern for and desire to help the entire world.
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8. The Creator
Desire: Create something of enduring value
Goal: Give form to a vision
Fear: Having mediocre vision or expression
Strategy: Develop artistic control and skill
Task: Create culture, develop own vision
Trap: Perfectionism, miscreation
Gift: Creativity and imagination
Call: Daydreams, fantasies, flashes of inspiration
Level 1: Being creative and innovative in imitative ways
Level 2: Giving form to one’s own vision
Level 3: Creating structures that influence culture and society
Shadow: Overly dramatizing one’s life, living a soap opera
The Creator crafts unique objects of enduring artistic, emotional or societal value. The Creator develops
creative skill in order to create something truly original and unique.
The Creator archetype begins with imitating other creators, and progresses to the ability to give form to
an original and unique vision. At its strongest, the archetype involves creating something that influences
culture and society for many years.
The Ruler
Desire: Control
Goal: Create a successful, prosperous family, company or community
Strategy: Exert leadership
Fear: Chaos, being overthrown
Trap: Being bossy, authoritative
Gift: Responsibility, leadership
Call: Lack of resources, order or harmony
Level 1: Taking responsibility for the state of one’s own life
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9. Level 2: Exerting leadership in one’s family, group, organization or workplace
Level 3: Becoming leader in one’s community, field or society
Shadow: Tyrannical or manipulative behaviors
The Ruler exerts control over others in order to achieve a goal. Using his or her leadership skills, the
Ruler guides his or her family, company or community to success and prosperity.
At the lowest level, the Ruler archetype involves taking responsibility for one’s own life, which is then
expanded to taking responsibility for one’s family or group. The pinnacle of the Ruler archetype is
becoming a leader in one’s community or field of expertise, or the larger society.
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