Making up Meaning
Learning from Liars.
Almost 20 years ago when I was a young graphic designer at a famous global shoe company, I remember when the legal team advised me in a meeting that we could start using the words Rezomax Tech and Resolyt Tech on their newly popular fad shoes. we are working on the TM. we might have to use the circle R for another couple of months til it’s finalized.
I had just been put as lead on the brand to work between teams and I was stoked- rip-roaring and ready to be good at my job.
I naively asked in the meeting, “What does it mean? We didn’t put this on the box before… Did we change something in the shoe?”
“No,” they said. “We just got the word registered and close to trademarked to explain this “new technology” that is in the shoe”. The shoe company had claimed they could help you lose weight, gain muscle, and help fix posture.
“So, where is this technology in the shoe” I asked, “What is it? What does it really do? Did we make a new technology and change the shoe design?” What ingredients are in it? How does it work?”
I had thought throughout my career that understanding the thing would help me communicate the big idea to the masses. I was a translator and educator who had to take industry business jargon to people who didn’t know- most people. I can somehow take complex ideas and break them down and help visualize them through icons, symbols, pictures, and words for understanding.
So, I asked lots of questions and researched everything so I could be great at my job! It ended up getting me in trouble many, many, many times. “Just make it pretty, honey.”
After a beat, the top marketing guy responded “Megan, we made up the word. It sounded cool. It’ll help us sell more shoes. It’s the same puffy plastic plus or minus an ingredient so it’s not, eh, exact, but it's the plastic in the sole that everyone uses, We got the trademark for this mix. We own it now, we named it because no one else did. other big companies do the same, then small companies have to pay a ton of money to use our material”.
I was dumbfounded. “You can do that? You, just make up a word for this thing everyone’s been using and call it technology?”
“Sure, easily,” they said, “If you have enough money”.
I said. “Well, how are people gonna know what this is and means if we just made it up and it just means the same shitty plastic sole that is in other shoes? It’s just the poly-whatever, basically plastic that is squishy, maybe slightly more soft than other soles. That’s ridiculous! how will we ever get people to buy that? Does it even work?”
They explained. “It doesn’t matter if it works, well, we got studies to show it does. We edited out the stats to make it look like 84% increase of metabolizing or whatever. We’ll get the copywriting team on it and get it on the box too.”
They continued, “What matters is, If you just repeat a thing enough times, people will believe it means what we tell them it means and we have enough money to do it. They go from slightly confused and don’t want to feel dumb so they agree to it. Oh yeah. Rezomax tech - I know what that is. Everyone knows what it is.”
“They see it on the sole, the box, the magazine ad, the tag, the commercial, the social media posts, the review videos on YouTube, the billboard, the product placement in movies, on the athlete's foot that was paid to say it. The doctor who was hired speaks at conferences. We educate them. That’s our job. They’ll see it over and over and say- this word is this thing.”
“We had a whole list of made-up words and this is the one people thought sounded coolest from some focus groups. Then we did the paperwork and paid a ton of money. It’s what it is. Put the words on the box.”
“But, wait… how… they aren’t words. we made them up?!”
“Geez sweetie, you are taking up our time, we have other stuff to get to. Colors of tags and other brands. No other designers asked or cared. No one in the company has caused all this time wasting. They just do what they are supposed to do and put it on the damn box. You don’t need to be such a shit-stirrer, it’s unproductive. You don’t have to question us or understand. Your job is just to put it on the box. Get back to work”
I lost my new role and going forward. I would going forward, only receive the the email. “Put this on the box”. Instead of being included in the meetings from that point, a “nice” girl who worked at the company for 10 years took lead and took notes quietly.
Before that, I had gotten a 10k bonus. It was my last one. I became another production monkey copy pasting onto thousands of different boxes. In different languages for hundreds of styles but always saying with Resomax Tech T. M.!!!
It’s marketing, it’s propaganda, it’s make-believe. “We made it up!” Unless you get enough people to believe it. Then it’s just the thing according to the masses. And most people don’t ask. They don’t want to lose their job for being insubordinate or wasting people's time with “dumb” questions. They don’t want to sound dumb for not knowing. Stand in line and say. “yes sir, no sir. I’d be happy to sir. what an amazing idea sir”
I wonder how many words in our society have been added and repeated that were just sounds… close to words, but when you combined sounds like “reso” Newly short for Resin or plastic - But meaningless and made up…
Wow. we just made up meaning for this “new” thing that we’ve used. and is plastic. and everyone will agree. I wonder how many people before and after me nodded and smiled and put it on the box.
So so many made-up words, and storylines. and repeated through history. Too many. What do they mean? Does anyone ask or care? Where did they come from? I wasn’t in on the game until I was. I was shocked. Then I was repulsed, and then I felt guilty.
Play along, stir the pot, get in trouble, and live with knowing and seeing too much. Drink heavily, pop pills, forget. Super options. Talk loudly and get killed or sued. Quietly disappear?
Or not.
Corn syrup is another fun one. People started to get wise to the fact that it caused a lot of health problems and was toxic in 99% of processed food. But in a fast-acting campaign over a couple of years that word got turned into many other fun made-up words and trademarks- Go ahead. Look up the words for corn syrup now- there are about 20. and they changed slight molecules, consistency, color, and ingredients but it’s the same dang thing. But people think they are eating a new kind of sweetener that has no calories! No fats! Naturally derived! Plant-based.
They get to lie and make it up til they are caught. and that takes years and years and years and a lot of money. Also, a few nerdy researchers, independent studies, getting people together, documenting and collecting written evidence, and finding backing with money to pay for legal fees. They get a slap and pay a fine that was .4% of their revenue from said thing. And how many people can do that?
Then they just make up new names, and new stories and the game continues. Until we get wise to the plays.
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And on the other end…one idea that really stuck with me this morning was snake oil.
We’ve seen lots of images of a traveling salesman selling a tonic or oil that was just too good to be true. We watched it in movies and TV shows, read it in books, laughed at comics, and scrolled by memes. How many collective times has it been repeated? It’s Snake oil and it couldn’t possibly do all those things. It got mocked. It got eye-rolled. It’s a fraud. It became a cultural expression.
It was right around the 1900s when a very powerful dude was trying to push his toxic sludge farmako ticals (which if you look up the Greek root farmakos means toxin to control the mind,” which the bible says may be the worst evil. (a strange mistranslated meaning that got left out.) but, why not look into it, I said. “It will be a fun rabbit hole!” I said.
So the father of the modern drug movement invested billions to crush natural remedies. systematically and with enormous sway across many many industries. He told people in those times it was the modern-day “woo” and restructuring the education system, and scientific community to it was astounding and people are only catching up on it 150 years later. Newspaper, science journals, medical boards, advertisements, flyers, and posters, over generations, repeated snake oil salesmen. Nah… that couldn’t happen. again. right? right?
Funnily I’ve been researching and wanting to grow and process my own caster oil which shows so many health benefits and is wildly inexpensive. It grows like a weed here and is relatively easy to harvest, crush boil, and skim off the oil.
Listening to YouTubers talk about it, with genuine enthusiasm and awe, that it’s helped their scars, it's helped weight loss through helping the body eliminate better, grew their hair back, and a million other testimonials after use. And of course, the nerd I am, I did massive amounts of research on the compound, its history, and its usages across continents.
When I was watching the videos funnily enough my brain program flashed for an instance “ it’s too good to be true” and “snake oil” and pushy sales pitches of just wait there is more….” How would people believe ever believe it does all of that?
Given what I know about the body, it really makes perfect sense to me, because It cleanses the body and helps regenerate cells. Of course, it would heal the body because of its cleansing, anti-viral, fungal, and antibiotic, anti-parasitic functions. Of course, it would bring about new healthy cell growth. Of course, something non-toxic like that can be used anywhere on the body and can be taken orally- in balance of course. Just like tea tree, garlic, sulfur, nettle, honey, just like so many other natural medicines.
It has thousands of years of history of use all over the world.
But snake oil salesmen say their oil can heal anything! What a load of crap.
Why would it work? because it detoxes, flushes, and cleanses. it helps the body get rid of what's poisoning it, slowing it down, sludging up the perfect system, and allowing that energy and life force to go to do what it was meant to do. Live and make more of itself. Given I understand the body to be- get rid of poisons, inflammation, and toxins (emotionally, mentally, and physically) it’s exactly what the Western world needs with all its polymers and plastics, synthetic chemical food with artificial colors and flavors, and inflammatory all the things. Many need a solid clean out beyond fasting or allowing the body to naturally purge because most natural purging and body self-cleansing have been shamed or controlled.
The repeated ringing of “too good to be true” and the drug makers called it snake oil, said it didn’t work enough times, and said don’t drink the poison, don’t waste your money. Don’t get ripped off. Meanwhile…
I wished it had been the only conversation and realization like this. For 10 years more I kept saying, maybe this time it’s different…
But surely at a point I knew too much, didn’t go along with the game, or had to disappear (either forced or leave on my own accord.) would I let myself be pushed out or live in fear of being caught rather than ask questions, let alone speak up?
Until I had enough. and there are tradeoffs and consequences to our every action. I chose to live in a developing nation and learn about healing, meaning, and love. I grow plants. I spend time with my children, my husband, myself, and my friends.
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As a follow-up, this is a fictional story. Snake Oil = Bad. I slightly changed the name even here, even now. What’s fiction and non-fiction anyway? Whats real and not?