Yes, really. And when it comes to pictures and video, the online fakery has reached fever pitch. The advertising industry gets a bad rap for Photoshopping models, but thanks to Instagram accounts like @celebface, we now know that many of the most beautiful people in the world regularly Photoshop themselves (and apparently their babies, as well--ahem, paging Kim K). The latest form of online fakery to proliferate are “deepfakes”--strikingly realistic videos created with photos of people (both famous and not) taken from the Web (the most unsettling example as of late was a porn video that featured a woman’s face grafted onto another woman’s body). 

The post-truth era is very much a reality. Online fakery has become so pervasive that we are becoming inured to it--and that’s just in the times we’re aware it’s happening. Sure, that sounds bad. And in some ways it definitely is (case in point: the proliferation of fake news). While we all have very good reason to be concerned, let’s face it--this is the world we currently live in. So if you're a brand, how do you deal with it? And are there any opportunities in this darkness? I believe there are, and they fall into two distinct categories.

I’ll call the first category “authentic real.” This involves leaning in hard to a “no-BS” brand philosophy and voice. This might involve extreme transparency (think: Patagonia shining a light on its supply chain with The Footprint Chronicles), or self-deprecating humor (think: Domino’s ‘we’re sorry for sucking' campaign), or owning your brand’s mistakes (think: Chipotle’s handling of its food safety issues). Some of the most memorable brands today fall into the “authentic real” category.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is what I’ll call the “authentic fake” category -- essentially a full-fledged embrace of all things fake, from a philosophical POV, an aesthetic POV, or both. Here, real and fake bleed together such that it’s sometimes difficult to discern which is which. We see the effect of this in the beauty category especially. Accounts like @ravvebeauty and @dazedbeauty (in which Dali-esque 3D animation, robot models and strangely beautiful looks like barbed wire braces and butterfly-wing lashes) stand in stark contrast to the polished one-dimensionality of most mainstream beauty accounts. AR influencer Lil Miquela--an entirely computer-generated character who lives a full-fledged life on Instagram, with fans around the world who track her every move--is perhaps the best example of the “authentic fake.” Yes, she is technically fake, but her honesty and vulnerability as a character around the fact of her own computer-generated origins makes her feel totally real.

Understand that fake is now a baseline expectation: audiences expect brands to be fake, and that expectation will only increase over the coming years. Instead of freaking out about that along with everyone else, opt instead to surprise audiences by going in one of two directions: by being really really real, or by being really really fake. Just be sure to stay away from the in-between.

Have an opinion on Internet fakery or other digital marketing matters? Share it with me or just say hello at sara@swprojects.co.

Want to hear more of my thoughts on digital content? Listen to my interview with Sophia Amoruso on Girlboss Radio here