Abstract:

We live in an age where a counselor to the Leader of the Free World has defended the White House spokesman's use of Alternative Facts, where Fake News is alleged to have affected the outcome of elections, and the contested notion of a Post-Truth era has been posited. Brands, meanwhile, have their own issues with truth: from cameraphones-plus-social-media shedding light on inconvenient truths like the treatment of airline passengers unwilling to comply with overbooking policies, to the capability of social networks empowering consumers: not least to call-out misfiring attempts to harness human truths, most recently regarding a soda brand's bid to resonate with a climate of protest movements.