100% Authentic Blog Post

Authentic. Authenticity.

You're going to hear these words more and more. They already describe products and services, and NEWSWEEK profiled an advertising book written about the topic. "People are looking for authentic things" "Authentic local cultures and recipes" blah blah, etc etc.

It's accurate for the swing I think the American people are on right now. We have so much media saturation, that nearly everyone knows what to say, how to say it, how to work the game when a camera is pointed at them. Almost like a play where everyone learned their lines since birth. It's becoming obvious how little it takes for people to put whatever they want, with no concern for accuracy, onto a world stage (blogs included). Media is so pervasive in everyone's lives that it's nearly the apex of staged information.

This is not to say that there was some long forgotten time when all journalists were moral people, who fact checked everything, and checked their bias at the door. I think now people are just finally demanding that buzz word, authentic.

What does it mean or should it mean? When marketing gets a hold of it, as is already occurring, its supposed to mean quality, real, unprocessed, somewhat exotic (relative to current tastes), and something to trust.

I want it to mean transparency in motivations and origin. How do we know where you're getting it, and what you did to it before it got to us. It'll will probably end up being both, though more of the former.

The singular quality of American Advertising is to make a product/service out of anything.