The Laziness of the Book Metaphor

Why is it that every advertising creative thinks that branded interfaces need to have a 'real world' metaphor? You wouldn't open a book and expect to see a "Next Page" button to turn the pages for you. So why would anyone expect to have to click and drag the pages of an on-screen book in order to progress through some silly survey-type questions on a website. This approach just makes everything more complicated (to design & build, and for the user to learn) and slows down the whole experience.

Ok. So I'm being a tad simplistic. Sure. I'm well aware that metaphors can actually be quite powerful in creating mental models for users. But I guess my frustration is the general advertising approach to dressing up wolves (ie. an online survey) in sheep's clothing (ie. a linear book metaphor).

Digital is not TV. Shock, horror.

With passive media, like TV, creating a narrative is important in helping to deliver a message. Whereas interactive media, like Digital, forcing the linearity of a narrative can often be frustrating.

Remember: Most users don't read online; they scan. Add to that, the fact that people online are normally distracted by other media - scanning other websites or applications, the TV is on, music is playing, people are talking, etc. Who can be bothered with a narrative? Especially when it's probably just for some dull FMCG brand that no customer gives a toss about in the first place.

FWIW...
There's a good little Wiki on the dangers of terms like 'lean back' & 'lean forward' for differentiating between TV and computer interaction. Put simply, the lines between the two are blurring.

--- Update ---
And here's an example of someone using a metaphor well:
http://www.peepshow.org.uk/