Weekend edition—Elusive authenticity, cash deserts, teen comedies

At a recent conference for social media influencers in Texas, a pink neon sign blared, “Let Authenticity Lead the Way.” That word, “authenticity,” appeared countless times, even at a yoga session where the instructor urged attendees to “find your authenticity” while in certain poses. [Quartz Daily Brief]( Good morning, Quartz readers! At a recent conference for social media influencers in Texas, a pink neon sign blared, “Let Authenticity Lead the Way.” That word, “authenticity,” appeared countless times, even at a yoga session where the instructor urged attendees to “find your authenticity” while in certain poses. Authenticity is what influencers are supposed to lend the brands they promote on Instagram and other platforms. Marketers value their content as more honest and grounded than traditional advertising. But this central tenet of the influencer economy is also the fulcrum of most of its problems. Influencers say their sponsored posts are authentic because they genuinely like and use the products they promote. But those posts are also intentionally meant to blend in with their organic content. For consumers, this can raise questions. When am I being advertised to? Is this ad copy, or someone’s real opinion? Governments are trying to mandate this authenticity and[regulate the sector]( but it’s been slow going. The amount of content is massive, and the legal lines are vague. But the stakes are high—think, for example, of a random influencer promoting a pharmaceutical product and[not disclosing all the health risks](. Influencers, because they are tasked with upholding and projecting their authenticity, get bashed when they transgress against it. They can get into trouble when they buy[fake followers]( hawk[sketchy products]( or fail to disclose that they’ve been paid to promote something. But also, finding that “inner authenticity” from the yoga class[is quite fraught](. When is it OK to show vulnerability, or to share a dark moment, in the name of presenting their true selves? Part of the problem is that the supposed authenticity is projected and produced through social media platforms, which themselves are constructed upon filters, upon the idea of curation—upon a certain inauthenticity. Some say that the credit that influencers once got for their authenticity is running out. In a report for research firm Forrester, marketing analysts say they expect that, as with other forms of advertising, people will eventually “ascribe no more trust to influencers’ branded content than to brands themselves.” When authenticity becomes a commodity, how authentic can it be? —Hanna Kozlowska Five things on Quartz we especially liked Where cash isn’t king. As online banking takes over, Scotland has inadvertently become a laboratory for what happens when bank branches close and ATMs start running out of money. [John Detrixhe visited]( the UK’s “cash deserts,” where commerce has shifted to the towns that still have banks, and villagers are furious at executives in London who have shuttered their local branches. MacKenzie Bezos has split from her husband in more ways than one. The billionaire novelist recently promised to donate over half her wealth to worthy causes. The move suggests her approach to philanthropy may differ significantly from that of her ex-husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose charitable giving is relatively meager. As [Sarah Todd writes]( “MacKenzie is already signaling to the world that she plans to use her newfound power to carry out priorities that are distinctly her own.” The companies as big as entire countries’ stock markets. Netflix is worth about $150 billion in market capitalization. That’s roughly the same as every stock listed in Vietnam put together. The same goes for eBay and Nigeria. To put the size of global markets in perspective, Amanda Shendruk and Jason Karaian created maps that chart US-listed behemoths [by the size of the nearest national market](. 0.56 women for every four men. That’s the average gender ratio among the top-paid executives at the biggest companies hitting the IPO market in 2019. Quartz at Work’s Michelle Cheng [pored over the S-1 filings]( of companies including Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, Slack, and Chewy and asks: Where are the women? The kids are alright. Booksmart has won over critics and audiences alike. As [Adam Epstein argues]( the movie also gives Generation Z its very own “one crazy night” coming-of-age teen comedy. He highlights classics of the subgenre, including 1973’s American Graffiti and 2007’s Superbad. But Booksmart, he believes, is better than its predecessors, avoiding stereotypes and distilling years worth of teen angst into a single night. Quartz announcement Does meat grown in a lab really remove animals from the equation? In this week’s episode of our podcast, [Should This Exist?]( experts debate whether the production of cultured meat is truly harmless enough to solve Big Agriculture’s present ethical and environmental dilemmas. Five things elsewhere that made us smarter A dirty business after all. Done properly, tire pyrolysis earns kudos in the recycling industry as a green way to turn old wheels into a low-quality oil used for making asphalt. But in some countries, lax regulation of backyard operators paves the way for environmental disaster, as a [Reuters team reports]( from India and Malaysia, where toxins dumped in a river led to over 1,000 people being hospitalized earlier this year. The accidental “incel” celebrity. In online forums, men calling themselves “incels” (involuntarily celibate) rage about being ugly and complain about the ease with which “Chads” (attractive men) hook up with women. They also discuss the plastic surgeons they’ve used, as they try to reshape their faces to boost their dating prospects. For New York Magazine’s The Cut, [Alice Hines profiles]( (paywall) one surgeon who became famous among incels and didn’t even know about them. Life as a fake news writer. In 2016, over 100 websites cranking out fake news ahead of the US presidential election were run out of one small town in North Macedonia. For the BBC, [Simon Oxenham learns from]( a former employee of one of these operations what it was like to spend her days rewriting fabricated or misleading articles that were originally published by extreme right-wing publications on the other side of the planet. The cycle of gentrification. In the Chinatown of Los Angeles, a spicy chicken joint called Howlin’ Ray’s has become immensely popular. Frank Shyong, writing for the Los Angeles Times, notes that it isn’t the penny-pinching locals waiting up to five hours in line to try it—it’s well-heeled foodies lured by social media hype. As [Shyong convincingly argues]( (paywall), Howlin’ Ray’s is a case study of how gentrification works—in LA and beyond. Free trade on the rise. On Thursday, Donald Trump shocked many by [announcing a 5% tariff]( all goods imported into the US from Mexico. Less noticed was a development in cross-border commerce of arguably far greater long-term significance: The African Continental Free Trade Area went into effect. While much about the deal still needs to be worked out, Prinesha Naidoo [writes for Bloomberg]( (paywall), Africa is quietly piecing together the world’s largest free-trade zone. Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, spicy chicken, and S-1 filing revelations to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by [downloading our app]( and [becoming a member](. Today’s Weekend Brief was edited by Steve Mollman and Holly Ojalvo. Enjoying the Daily Brief? Forward it to a friend! They can [click here to sign up.]( Want to advertise in the Quartz Daily Brief? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. To unsubscribe from the Quartz Daily Brief, [click here](.