Authenticity has become the holy grail of marketing in recent years. Scroll through any social media feed, and you'll be bombarded with brands desperately trying to prove how "real" they are.
But tell me in all honesty — are you convinced?
To me most attempts at authenticity seem about as genuine as a three-dollar bill.
So I wanted to discuss with you:
- What is authenticity in branding
- How consumer expectations have changed
- When brand realness can be problematic
- How to distinguish real authenticity from performative kind
Unpacking the Authenticity Obsession
What do we even mean by "authenticity" in branding? It's a loaded term that emerged from a cultural shift demanding more transparent, human-like communication from companies.
What started as a meaningful movement has morphed into a performance art of vulnerability and relatability.
Historically, brand communication was formal and distant. Think Mad Men-era advertising with its polished, aspirational messaging.
Then came social media, and everything changed. Suddenly brands were expected to have personalities, quirks, and — most importantly — "realness."
Interestingly, the consumer demand for authenticity increased even further after the pandemic.
A majority of consumers now say authenticity is important when choosing brands.
The problem is — if realness is in high demand, it is invented even when there’s no realness in sight.
Agencies, in-house marketing departments and even freelance copywriters and content producers follow such trends closely, and if authenticity is the name of the game, then comms people will play it. Or fake it, if necessary.
When Authenticity Goes Wrong
Performative authenticity is a special kind of marketing disaster. Remember, in 2017, Pepsi released a now-infamous commercial featuring an American model Kendall Jenner seemingly solving social tensions by offering a police officer a Pepsi during a protest.
The ad was a masterclass in misguided "authenticity," attempting to capitalize on social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter while completely misunderstanding their depth and complexity.
Trivializing serious social issues, using a privileged celebrity to "solve" systemic problems and reducing complex social tensions to a consumer good — does not look like a recipe for success.
And it indeed was not. The backlash was immediate and brutal. The ad was pulled within 24 hours, but it still haunts Pepsi from blog posts like this…
Another way how realness is performed is these “I failed, but here's how it made me a BETTER PERSON" on LinkedIn. I bet you see at least one such post in your feed every week.
Or every day?
At least to me these posts often read more like carefully crafted personal branding exercises than genuine reflections.
A CEO describing how they "failed" by losing a multimillion-dollar contract, only to frame it as a transformative moment that led to even greater success.
The humble brag disguised as vulnerability — please, give me a break from that kind of authenticity.
The Trust Erosion
Ironically, these forced attempts at authenticity do the exact opposite of what they intend. Most people nowadays can smell insincerity from a mile away. Each performative post chips away at brand trust slowly, but steadily.
When a company's communications feel manufactured or inconsistent with its core values, consumers' inherent sensitivity to emotional incongruence can trigger a subconscious trust alert.
This reaction may manifest as a general sense of unease or skepticism toward the brand, even if consumers cannot explicitly pinpoint the cause.
What Real Authenticity Looks Like
True authenticity is a delicate art of showing up consistently, transparently, and with genuine intention.
Take Buffer, a social media management platform. Instead of paying lip service to openness, they've implemented radical transparency as a core business strategy.
They share publicly entire employee salary ranges, publish their financial dashboards in real-time, openly discuss company challenges, including financial struggles and maintain transparent remote work policies.
During a significant revenue downturn in 2016, Buffer's founders didn't just send an internal memo.
They published a detailed blog post explaining their financial challenges, potential layoffs, and strategic pivots. This approach transformed a potentially negative situation into a moment of genuine connection with their community.
Another example is an outdoor retailer REI. Unlike many other brands that engage in greenwashing REI has turned corporate social responsibility into a key pillar of their brand communication.
They close their stores on Black Friday to encourage outdoor experiences both for their consumers and employees, their marketing team creates useful content that genuinely serves their community of outdoor enthusiasts and their marketing messages such as their #OptOutside campaign are genuinely aligned with environmental and social values.
For me, real authenticity is characterized by:
- Consistency between words and actions
- Willingness to be vulnerable
- Prioritizing genuine connection over viral moments
- Adapting based on community feedback
- Maintaining a clear, principled stance
As a marketer, you can ask yourself: if no one was watching, would we still say this? If the answer is no, it's probably not authentic.
If the answer is yes, we would still say it even if no one was around, because it is important for us as a company, us as people, then it is true authenticity that can actually make the world better.
