- Get a point across succinctly.
- Use humour effectively.
- Make it clear who/what is evil/good. (And as a personal like, fairytales don't compromise with evil either. They state what it is and you know the rest of the story will be about how that evil is overcome. You know evil will not be allowed to win).
- Can be spoofed well.
- The hero/heroine is clearly depicted (and I love the way Shrek turns this around!).
So as a writing template, I think fairytales can be used to good effect by writers whatever their genre.
Fairytales are amongst the stories that linger in the memory too. (Something that all writers need to aim for? Is our writing good enough that it will linger like that?).