Marketing the Authentic Taco
Fabricating Authenticity - Jason W.M. Ellsworth
Jason W.M. Ellsworth [+]
Dalhousie University
Jason W. M. Ellsworth is a Research Fellow, doctoral candidate, and sessional Lecturer in the Sociology & Social Anthropology Department at Dalhousie University. His research focuses on the study of the Anthropology & Sociology of Religion, Buddhism in North America, Food & Food Movements, Theories of Value, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, and Orientalism.
Description
In this chapter, Ellsworth discusses the wide array of food labels that pervade our food system today. Focusing on discourses of authenticity, he uses a case study of Mexican restaurants in a small province in Canada to show how authenticity is used in a competitive manner to legitimate businesses and cultural narratives. However, he also argues that there is a fetish for real and genuine experiences that drives demand for the authentic.