I recently wrote about a biological advantage of your Narrative Brain. Our unique human ability to use conjecture (imagining a future) rather than just correlation (analyzing the past).

But as we head into Super Bowl weekend, a tension is emerging. It’s a conflict between the comfort of data-driven certainty and the messy, unpredictable nature of human creativity. And it’s making the market nervous.

The Market’s “Dark Side” of AI

Yesterday’s New York Times was direct: “The Dark Side of AI Weighs on the Stock Market.” After a year of AI euphoria, we’ve entered a phase of volatility.

The anxiety isn’t just about AI taking jobs. It’s that AI might render business models obsolete by doing exactly what those models were designed to do: optimize the known. If we only train human employees and students to act like algorithms (sorting data and following “best practices”) we make them replaceable by definition.

As a recent Op-Ed argued, AI is unparalleled at pattern recognition, but lacks human judgment. Our ability to decide if an analysis is wise. For too long we’ve only been training leaders to be the things the market is now devaluing.

In Defense of the Map

To be clear, this isn’t an argument against data. I have many colleagues who have built their careers on the mastery of spreadsheets and analytics. Their work is vital. As S.I. Hayakawa might say, they are the Map-makers.

They provide clear, rigorous data that tells where we are standing. Without them, we are flying blind. You can’t make an imaginative leap to the future if you don’t have a grounded understanding of the present. The “Map” (the spreadsheet) is the essential foundation.

The problem arises when we confuse the Map for the Territory. For decades, business schools and C-suites have suffered from Physics Envy or the desire to turn strategy into a “hard science” with universal, immutable laws. We want to believe that if we input enough data, the “correct” strategy will be revealed.

Business is a human science, not a natural one. In physics, if you drop a ball, it falls. In marketing, if you drop a product or an ad, the result depends on culture, timing, and narrative. There are no universal laws of marketing success hidden in a spreadsheet.

When we demand that every move be “statistically significant,” we create a ceiling. Statistical significance requires a large sample of the past, but innovation is a statistical outlier.

The Snickers Paradox: Why AI “Fails” at the Super Bowl

Nothing illustrates this better than a masterclass in human insight: the Snickers “Betty White” spot, recognized as one of the best Super Bowl ads of the last 25 years.

My former agency, BBDO, created this campaign (though I didn’t work on this specific account). This week, predictive AI tools like Neurons Inc. released an analysis claiming the ad is “imperfect” because the branding and logo appear too late.

From a “best-practice probability” standpoint, the AI is right. The “Map” of past successful ads says you should brand early.

From a “best-practice probability” standpoint, AI is right. The “Map” says you should brand early. But the “Territory” of human emotion tells a different story. The ad worked because it used conjecture to build tension.

You’re hooked by a 90-year-old woman being tackled in a mud pit, and the product is the “Aha!” solution. If you give away the ending in the beginning, you remote the interest. You create an ad shows the brand early to follow a “best practice” but is ignored.

Math, Meet Magic

Data did play a role in the campaign. As David Lubars, BBDO’s Global Chief Creative Officer, has noted, qualitative research identified a globally consistent “code of conduct” for how people interact within a group.

The creative team synthesized this into a profound human and product truth: When you’re hungry, you’re not on your game. Snickers is substance that “sorts you out.”

They didn’t just find a data point. They designed a narrative. And the world responded:

• The Recognition: The ad topped the USA Today Ad Meter as the #1 Super Bowl spot.

• The Buzz: It generated over 91 days of media coverage from a single 30-second spot and 400 million unpaid media impressions—a value of $28.6 million, or 11.4 times the initial investment.

• Effectiveness: It won an EFFIE for both creativity and marketing effectiveness helping sales of Snickers increase $376m during the two-year period from 2010-2012

• The Bottom Line: Sales grew by 15.9% in the first year, increasing market share in 56 of its 58 global markets.

Math, Confirm Magic

After my advertising creative career, I entered academia as a professor. One of the first academic studies I did was on this very phenomenon. My research partner Michael Coolsen and I proved that for brands, “For Brands, A Little Drama is a Good Thing.“

Our research proved telling complete stories following a five act form increases Super Bowl ad ratings and YouTube shares and views. We used the “Math” of academic research to confirm the “Magic” of storytelling. A Narrative Brain isn’t just a creative preference. It’s a measurable business driver.

This aligns with Angus Fletcher’s research into the Narrative Brain shows that the human mind isn’t a logic processor. It’s a story processor. While AI is stuck in the world of probability (what usually happens), the human brain is built for narrative intuition (imagining what could happen). This is our “Primal Intelligence.”

The Human Edge

This is the approach we’re exploring in the Markets, Innovation & Design program at Bucknell University. We’re not “anti-data.” We’re “pro-human integration.” The spreadsheet is the starting line, not the finish line.

1. Analyze the Map: Use data and analytics to see where the market is.

2. Enter the Territory: Use empathy and observation to find the human insight.

3. Make the Creative Leap: Move from Correlation (Map) to Conjecture ( Driver) to design a future the data hasn’t seen.

The Competitive Advantage of the Unpredictable

The market is currently punishing companies that look like they can be replaced by an algorithm. The antidote to that fear is a more balanced approach to business education.

We need the Map-makers to show us where we are, but we need the Narrative Designers to decide where we’re going. The most successful strategies, the ones that win the Super Bowl ads and dominate markets, aren’t found in a “best-practice” log. They’re designed by people who look at the Map and then choose to drive somewhere the Map never saw coming.

About This Post’s Creation It was developed in partnership with Gemini. AI helped bridge the market news with my last post, the core perspective, first hand experience and research insights remains my own.