Personas:- character diamonds

I came across an article written by hollywood screen writer, David Freeman, that helps us identify 'character diamonds'. He explains that a character is merely made up of layers. One of the layers is the character diamond and each corner of that diamond represents a trait of the characters personality. The term 'Character personality' means, the combination of all of these traits that encompass the character's personality.

I will take one character who is fairly well known to try and explain Freeman's term 'character diamonds'

Marilyn Monroe

Spiritual and aesthetic: she is aware of her beauty and how powerful it can be for a lady of her stature. She is also very humble and spiritually aware.

Confused: she was sort of a loner and misunderstood young woman.

Depressed: Very unhappy with her life, as she felt she had no control over it any more.

Irresponsible: She would always let people down. Not show up on time, if at all.

Character diamonds can get pretty confusing. For instance, how can a person so spiritual and energetic be irresponsible and depressed? We would then use a tool called 'a mask' to address this issue.

When a character is fake, he/she wears a 'mask', thus to fool others or even himself. Marilyn does think that she is spiritual, gracious and energetic. However, these traits are only a mask until the confusion, depression, and irresponsible nature start to reveal themselves. Fake or not. This mask helps Marilyn think about which way is best to approach the world.

The real problem in advertising is when we have to address a buyers mask. Then what traits are we targeting, or are we targeting traits at all?