Authentication or Otherwise? Commemorative Column by Ian Lancaster

Anti-Counterfeiting News, Product Protection News, Brand Protection News… these were some of the titles that we dreamed up when we decided to launch Reconnaissance’s second newsletter, as our first, Holography News®, was increasingly reporting the security uses of holograms.

As is now obvious, we eventually settled on Authentication News (AN), which was first published in 1995, 30 years ago. We didn’t foresee the influence that choice of title would have on what has become the authentication community – nor how significant authentication would become for both documents and products.

Why Authentication News? Firstly, because the time was right. Brand counterfeiting increased exponentially in the late 1980s and early 1990s, leading to a commensurate increase in the number of items being introduced to help combat those counterfeits.

The first use of a hologram as a product anticounterfeiting feature was in 1987, as a neck label on Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky for Thailand, and by 1995 many more security features were available for product protection.