The Truth About UGC: Why Authenticity Beats Cheap Commercials Every Time

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: An Inside look into Content Creation, Greenwashing, and Earth Month - Dip into It with Kate Assaraf

The UGC Boom (and the Problem With It)

User-generated content has become the new gold rush. Scroll TikTok or Instagram for five minutes, and you’ll see “authentic” reviews, creators raving about products, and suddenly “viral” brands popping up everywhere. But here’s the problem: a lot of it isn’t real.

We’re talking $20 videos from people who don’t even believe in the brand. Paid actors reading scripts. And now? AI avatars that look like real humans but are just code. It’s basically Black Mirror for beauty.

As Kate shared in her recent interview,

“I almost feel like brands with a lot of money, especially VC-backed brands, are taking advantage of people and turning them into cheap commercials.”

And she’s right. That’s not authenticity, it’s advertising dressed up in disguise.

Good UGC vs. Bad UGC

Not all UGC is bad. In fact, Dip wouldn’t be here without it. Real creators sharing their honest experiences... that’s community, that’s connection, and that’s what builds trust.

But there’s a huge difference between:

• Someone who actually loves a product and wants to share it.

• Someone who’s paid $20 to read a script about a brand they’ve never used.

• An AI avatar made to trick you into thinking it’s real.

So how do you tell the difference? Transparency. If the content feels like a flood of fakeness, it probably is.

Greenwashing Meets “Fakewashing”

This isn’t just about content, it connects to a bigger issue: greenwashing. Just like brands slap on sustainability buzzwords without doing the work, now they’re “flood washing” TikTok with fake UGC. It’s all the same problem: look sustainable, look authentic, without actually being it.

At Dip, we don’t do fake. We don’t do greenwashing. And we definitely don’t do AI avatars to sell you shampoo bars.

How Dip Does It Differently

Here’s the thing... we could flood TikTok with trends, scripts, and cheap UGC. But we don’t. Because real people deserve real answers.

Instead, Dip chooses to:
✅ Partner with creators who actually use our products.
✅ Share the messy, the fun, and the honest parts of haircare.
✅ Be transparent about what’s inside every bar and why it works.
✅ Invest in community, not cheap commercials.

Because when you strip it back, consumers want the same thing: honesty.

Final Rinse

The beauty industry doesn’t need more fakes, it needs more trust. And while UGC has the power to connect brands and people, it only works if it’s real.

So next time you see a flood of “authentic” reviews, ask yourself: does this person really believe in the brand? Or are they just a face in a cheap commercial?

At Dip, we’ll always choose trust over trends. No gimmicks. No AI avatars. Just performance bars that actually work and a community that believes in them.

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