Historia de la utilización del cine como herramienta didáctica

Descrates referred to the idea of authenticity as following a moral inner voice and according to this voice individuals ought to think and act responsibly (Marra, 2009). Rosseau supported Descrates by adding that authenticity is the voice of nature within us. Before Descrates and Rosseau, identity was seen as an individual’s level of morality depicted or developed through one’s status in society (i.e. sources external to the body) (Marra, 2009). In keeping with one’s true identity, Herder took Descrates’ and Rosseau’s view and extrapolated that creativity, authenticity and originality are measures of existence (Marra, 2009), as one’s identity, according to Herder, is based on experiences and how one would interpret those experiences.

Thus, this inner voice would be sculpted through the human experience. Grimmit combined the ideas of the three mentioned philosophers and stated that authenticity is “to draw on a

‘body’ of knowledge and to speak and act from those moral spaces with a confidence that is rooted in a conscious, collective understanding” (Marra citing Grimmet & Neufield, 1994: 208).

This could be adapted to authentic narrative in branded entertainment, being in a creative

space, to self-produce original content, speaking one’s own, with the intent to provide utility through sincerity, and simultaneously bearing relevance to the target audience’s value system in order to maximise its potential for resonance.

Kernis and Goldman (2006: 294) cited Rogers (1961) and Maslow (1968), relating authenticity to self-actualisation, alluding to creativity as a concept, according to Cloninger (1993): that creativity in its approach to “living” rather than falling slave to old and restrictive behaviours i.e. to reinvent oneself. This refers to the willingness of adapting to one’s environment and changing times with respect to one’s essence. This stands in direct support of Heidegger and Kierkegaard’s notion that one must have a keen awareness of one’s own identity and of one’s relationships with others and have the ability to change with circumstances by reinventing oneself as the world and relationships change in order to create a sense of “vibrancy”

(Solomon & Flores, 2001). This vibrancy could be argued to mimic resonance. This infers that brands that re-invent themselves by embarking on a road of entertainment instead of applying traditional advertising may stand a greater chance to achieve resonance because target audiences would be more open to their attempt and inherently find it authentic if their intent speaks of a so-called moral inner voice.

The concepts of identity and morality seem to repeatedly surface in the teachings on authenticity by Descartes, Rousseau, Herder and Grimmitt. A more contemporary take in context of brand communication was made by Carroll and Wheaton (2009: 1) who also presented these two characteristics or interpretations of authenticity, being type authenticity and moral authenticity. A discussion on each follows next.

3.2.1.4.1 Type authenticity i.e. the identity argument

Type authenticity, as reasoned in this section, would question whether an entity is true to its associated type, category or genre. Consumers must thus have the ability to relate the product, service or even brand communication effort to something they consider relevant to its association as per their experience (or frame of reference) – or within the context in which it communicates. One could also argue that the narrative or brand as narrator must hold their own in the narrative itself, i.e. that the characters, for instance, should be coherent and stay true to their identity throughout, otherwise the communication will be considered inauthentic (Gubrium & Holstein, 1998: 178). Carroll and Wheaton (2009: 2) expanded on the “type”

authenticity to include a suggested term: “craft” authenticity. They explain it as “… whether something is made using the appropriate techniques and ingredients”. This could refer to the actual product or service communicated, but also the narrative – whether the narrative is authentically crafted. This refers to whether there is true originality in the narrative of the communication effort. Beverland (2011) also referred to craft in authenticity; however, in context of product or service quality, crafted through “love” of production, design-led innovation with elements of true uniqueness and obsession with creating meaningful connections between their products and customers. One could extrapolate this thought to narrative and how craft in narrative can contribute to authenticity.

Beverland et al. (2008) referred to approximate authenticity in advertising. This would look at more symbolic or abstract impressions of tradition that were created by the advertising, i.e.

the “feeling” that the product has an origin or will help achieve self-authentication through connecting with a place and time – it could even be regarded as the “aura” of the product advertising or even “mystique” of the product portrayed through the communication effort. To extrapolate this to narrative in branded entertainment, one could say that the authenticity of the communication effort should evoke a “feeling” of it being original and true to the brand essence. That it should be something which can be believed.

Type authenticity resembles the identity argument, i.e. brands ought to be true to their identity in representing themselves in their communication effort and the communication itself ought to have a unique identity.

3.2.1.4.2 Moral authenticity, i.e. the moral argument

Moral authenticity would question whether “… the enactment and operation of an entity reflect sincere choices (i.e. choices true to one’s self) rather than socially accepted responses”

(Carroll & Wheaton, 2009: 5). If one were to argue that promotion is “socially accepted” as something which has the aim to inform, persuade and remind audiences, it could be said that branded entertainment could be seen through a lens of content creation, providing entertainment and that the brand is sincere in its approach, not necessarily pushing sales.

Sincerity of the communication again plays a role as the expectation from the audience is entertainment in lieu of meaningful content creation.

This also leads to a moral argument of questioning not just the intent (sincerity) of the brand in context of the branded entertainment initiative, but also the value-alignment, i.e. providing the consumer with a feeling that the narrative and the representative brand will assist in the target audience achieving self-authentication through connecting with personal moral values (Beverland et al., 2008: 8). It is important to note that consumers interested in moral authenticity were less interested in the history or connection to time and place, but were more focused on the intent of the brand or would rather choose brands that seemed genuine in their intent. This intent could be identified as the brand being committed to traditional moral practices (Beverland et al., 2008: 9). Extrapolating it to authentic narrative one could say that the intent of the communication will be assessed by the target audience on the brand’s intent from a moral perspective.

3.2.1.4.3 Summary and conclusion of identity and moral arguments for authenticity

The identity argument draws on the concept of originality with the ability to communicate a sense of the author’s identity and world view (Gubrium & Holstein, 1998: 178; Beverland et al., 2008; Carroll & Wheaton, 2009: 1), i.e. the brand’s identity in context of brand communication. The moral argument draws on a value system that should align that of the author’s and the audience’s, rooted in a “conscious, collective understanding” (Marra citing Grimmet and Neufield, 1994: 208, supported by Boyle, 2003: 17-21). This simply means that the target audience must experience the brand’s value system as constituted by the communication as their own (Tampon, 2013). The collective understanding is furthermore proposed in context of “sincerity” (Clift, 2011: 8), i.e. for a brand to approach branded entertainment with the intent to add value through entertainment more so than to overtly “sell”

in context of branded entertainment that a target audience can experience as inauthentic (Swart, 2007). Continuing from this, Marsden (2015) applied authenticity to brand and brand building by stating that authenticity is the “extent to which consumers perceive a brand to be faithful toward itself, true to its consumers, motivated by caring and responsibility, and able to support consumers in being true to themselves”. Authenticity is a richer concept than only taking ownership of a branded entertainment property and brings facets that not only embrace the core value of authenticity but also guide a philosophy towards practice.

A basic introduction to the narrative concept follows. A brief examination is done of the narrative frameworks and viewpoints of three seminal thinkers, namely Walter R. Fisher, Seymour Chatman and Robert N. Yale. The most relevant extracts are then applied to the

authenticity concept in Section 3.2.3 to conceptualise a proposed authentic narrative construct with the best potential for brand resonance.