Authenticitude

The notion that authenticity can be a (subjective) attitude as well as an (objective) fact.

Authenticitude has been used to describe two inter-related phenomena. The first is the creation of authenticity-lite commercial brands that (cynically) ape the edge of street trends. Steven Wells, discussing this in The Guardian,cites Chrysostomos Giannoulakis, from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, who “analysed Nike’s brutal, relentless and increasingly successful attempts to turn skateboarding from a renegade sport into a docile cash cow.”

At the other end of the spectrum, authenticitude describes the mindset of those (teenagers) who aspire to a brand’s superficial glamor but are happy to obtain it through knock-offs. In The Seattle Times, Karen Sandstrom, quoted a fifteen-year-old girl as saying, “I like the logos and stuff … I don’t care if I have a real one or fake.”

It is possible that authenticitude was coined by the company Teen Research Unlimited, who cite it as a trademark on their site.