Gaga, Madmen, and other authenticities

1. Over at the Awl, Natasha Vargas-Cooper does a great job footnoting last night's Mad Men episode. She ends with a look at Don's risque pitch for Jantzen "two piece" bathing suits, and concludes: "The difference between the image and the authentic are going to remain mixed up for a very long time. Though we all know now that the real difference between a bikini and underwear is just what we call it."

2. Speaking of image, the NYT on Sunday had a very good piece on the meaning of Lady Gaga:

“I HATE the truth!” Lady Gaga yelled somewhere in the middle of the second of her three sold-out dates at Madison Square Garden this month. Conveniently, it hates her back. No one in recent pop memory has been a greater enemy to the authentic than Lady Gaga.

3. Over at Businessweek, Steve McKee takes another stab at the idea that a proper brand strategy needs to be focused on "authenticity". The danger is, that at a time when there's more transparency than ever, the public can call BS on a company that doesn't practice what its brand delivers:

In such an environment, it behooves everyone in business to consider the extent of their brand's authenticity. Nobody wants to be exposed as a fraud.

 4. Hezbollah has opened a theme park:

ABC basically found that the former Israeli military bunker is now home to war porn and propaganda. Museum attendees and volunteers apparently aren’t so concerned. “I believe it’s our right to have our own propaganda,” a tour guide tells ABC’s Lara Setrakian. It’s like Disneyland starring Farfour.