It's Popular, But Authenticity Isn't What It Used to Be

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After all the attempts to fake it as a marketing ploy, authenticity could easily have lost its allure. Every product and its brother now claim to be “real.” Politicians deck themselves out in plaid flannel shirts (as Lamar Alexander did in his presidential bid) to signal their just-folks authenticity. Search the Internet for references to “authentic” and you’ll find Web sites that trumpet everything from “Authentic Hungarian Parsley Stuffing” to “Authentic Taxidermy.” And yet the appeal of authenticity seems oddly undiminished.

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