The Bulmers beginning

Came across this billboard for Bulmers this evening. It's a bit of storytelling, which I always look for in an ad. Seth Godin would call it the company's world-view, that when Bulmers began in 1887, Tommy, the Bulmer family pony (belonging to Percy and Fred), powered the stone mill that pressed the apples. I looked it up, and apparently the life span of your humble pony is not around 126 years, so I think it's safe to say dear Tommy is not still around. Also, I don't think the ad is telling us that this is a company that used to work animals to their painful death - at least Tommy wasn't a pit pony. The last line throws it for me: 'thankfully Percy and Fred's innovative still lives on today'. So a pony pressing stuff was innovative? I guess. Worth boasting about? I guess not. Worth telling a story about? I don't think so. So it's not that storytelling works every time - clearly not, you and I read different books and love different movies, it's just that it's a nice and proper thing to do in advertising. But. Tell the right story. A pony for cider. Not so much the right story.