Maybe not in those exact words, and yet evidence abounds of companies creating authenticity gaps between the words they spew and the actions they do. Being authentic does, after all, mean being real or genuine. In the worst-case scenario, the company fixes the bugs and requires customers to buy the product upgrade. In another example of the prosumer model, many technology companies require customers to pay a product maintenance fee, giving the customers access to individualized telephone tech support. However, the industry norm now dictates that customers go online to search a database for generalized tech support.
Customers still pay the maintenance fee and have to pay an additional fee to get telephone support.
The customer service functions have been renamed Customer Care. To be authentic, such companies would have to be open about their true top priorities and intentions. So the communication is untrue, and thus not authentic. These examples are only slivers of a business norm that many people might describe as unethical, fraudulent or inauthentic, given the gaps between public relations spin and behavior. The spin doesn't seem to translate to organizational decision-making and behavior, primarily because its purpose is to positively affect stock prices and consumer behavior, even when some individuals in the organization are aware of the gap.