One thing about me and my cynical ass? I just love a good marketing buzzword autopsy.
And it’s safe to say that right now, the biggest buzzword of the last few years is lying flat on the table. Cause of death: overuse. Time of death: sometime in 2025, probably. Autopsy results: CHRONIC fatigue. Terminal.
It’s a shame. Authenticity was once genuinely revolutionary. Brands dropped the polished, corporate nonsense, influencers posted makeup-free selfies and crying vids. Everyone started "keeping it real" and for a hot minute, it actually felt real. It was refreshing. Different.
But then everyone started doing it. Like, literally everyone.
And when everyone is doing it, it stops being authentic and starts being a strategy. A very obvious, very overused strategy that every man and his dog is reading from the same playbook.
"Authenticity" has kind of become like a participation trophy. Everyone's got one. Nobody's impressed.
It's gotten worse, actually.
In 2024, authenticity fatigue was just settling in. Today, it's a full-blown crisis. And we've got a new villain to blame: AI.
Because AI-generated content is everywhere now. And it's good. Like, suspiciously good. Which means audiences are more sceptical than ever about whether what they're seeing is actually real.
When you can't trust that a face, a voice, or even an entire brand personality is genuine, the whole concept of "authentic content" starts to feel like some f*cked up joke.
On top of that, we're watching a full rebellion against performative wellness and curated perfection – something I wrote about recently was “wellness anarchists." People who are actively, deliberately rejecting the polished, optimised, green-smoothie version of life in favour of something messier and more human.
The pendulum hasn't just swung away from fake perfection. It's swung so far in the other direction that now the "authentic" brands are starting to look fake too. Confusing? You’re telling me.
So why did authenticity lose its power?
Manufactured realness. When every influencer is crying on cue and every brand is posting scripted "relatable" tweets full of brain rot and typos, the whole thing stops feeling genuine and starts feeling like a content template everyone downloaded from the same place. Which, I mean, they kind of did.
Audiences aren't stupid. They never were. They can always tell the difference between a brand that's actually being real and one that's performing realness for engagement. And nowadays, with AI in the mix, that radar is sharper than ever.
So then, what actually works now?
Hyper-specificity over broad relatability.
The age of generic "we're just like you!" content is so, so over. Audiences want brands that understand their specific world - their niche, their quirks, their values. Go deep, not wide.
Transparency, not perfection.
Actually being honest - even when it's uncomfortable. Own your mistakes. Show the mess. People can handle it. What they can't handle is another brand pretending everything is fine when it's clearly not.
Purpose over performance.
Stop trying to look authentic with funny tweets and banter. Focus on doing work that is authentic. Build around something that actually matters to you and your audience.
Be unpredictable.
Sometimes the most genuine thing you can do is break the mould entirely. In a sea of brands all doing the same "authentic" thing, being genuinely surprising is the new authentic.
Authenticity itself isn't dead. But its current, social media form? Absolutely in its flop era.
Stop being the one trying hardest to look real. Just be actually, genuinely, uncomfortably honest - in ways that feel specific, fresh, and true to who you actually are.
Drop the relatable memes. Drop the canned apologies. And for the love of everything, stop saying "authenticity." Just be real. There's a difference.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
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