We were driving out in the middle of nowhere when we saw a big orange billboard plastered with giant letters spelling out "Debunkify." That's all it said. I have no idea what this means, and now I'm wondering whether it's a reference to some new pop-cultural trend that I've somehow entirely overlooked. Did some world leader utter this word on a day when I was too busy to read the paper, or is it a reference to a film that will never show out here in the sticks? Maybe "Debunkify" is the next Macarena!
We expect to see peculiar things while driving across our little corner of the world: a sign in front of a grocery store proclaiming "We've Gone Fruity!" and another advertising a fish hatchery and llama farm. (Do they feed the dead fish to the llamas or vice versa?) We saw signs marking No-Name Road and Vista View Drive, and at a campground we saw a set of gigantic hippie dumpsters painted with immense psychedelic flowers on a hot pink background, as if a garbage truck had mated with the Partridge Family's bus and produced offspring.
All those things I can understand, but I'm befuddled by "Debunkify." I think it's time to phone a friend, but after spending most of the last two days in the car, I'm exhausted. My debunkification skills went wandering down No-Name Road and I'm still waiting for them to catch up. Meanwhile, I'll believe any fool thing anyone tells me. Try me and see.
11 comments:
Debunkify -- stemming from the Latin root "bonficius," meaning to believe wholeheartedly in something false, entered into English through the French term "bonnice," the past tense of this being "bonnict." In time, this evolved into the English "bunk". By 1732, the term "bunk" had largely dropped from common usage and only the negative of the word, "debunk," remained in the vernacular. By the early twentieth century, "debunkify" had gained popularity among certain elite circles in London, Manchester, and Oxford. This term was used most often as a verb in place of the more course "debunk." By no means did "debunk" lose it's place in the language, but it was largely relegated to the past tense, as in "We've most certainly debunked that myth." The more elegant "debunkify" found a place in such sentences as "Now there is one misconception that I most definitely will debunkify."
Hurrah for suffixes (and prefixes, while we're at it)! They make it so easy to unnecessarily lengthen words--they're just supercalifragilisticexpialadocious! I shall clunkify all of my wordiosity from now on. =)
It's not enough to know what the word means: I need to know what it was doing on a billboard in the middle of nowhere. Presumably someone paid money to post it there. Why? Who is the intended audience? What are they supposed to do?
I've seen debunkables of various sizes in Cincinnati - including a poster on a bus shelter across from P&G.
Then there's this
http://www.debunkify.com/
The domain is registered to hyperquake.com - a very hyper interactive design firm located on especially hyper 4th Street... hyperquake (or rather hyperQuake) is purported to do a P&G thing from time to time.. so maybe this is about a new debunking cream rinse.
Of course there are other major branding companies in Cincinnati.. so who knows... maybe it's an eco-friendly sausage? In 20 days we'll all know.
I'm not sure either but I was wondering if it was like those Stand and Truth ads that were against smoking...???
I've been seeing several of these in Toledo, OH, and now they have the tagline: "Kill the myths before they kill you." My boyfriend suggested a campaign to impeach president Bush?
-Alex
Toronto, Canada
weve done alot of research and there has been various connctions to the end of the world , could this be true ? the countdown is counting down to the days we have left ?
My opinion? This is some kind of commercial that has used an ingenius promotional tactic to get people talking about what it means...(like we are). I would bet that it is for either an new internet service provider, cell phone conglomeration, or it is for the billboard company itself to illustrate that billboards still have value in an electronic world.
If you google debunkify this site comes up second!
First is the actual debunkify.com website. It's for the STAND/Truth anti-smoking nazis. Its their latest advertising campaign.
I also googled my way here. I found it funny because I circled back first time i saw it to take a picture! I think the campaign marketing clever and their cause noble. I am a smoker but still I applaude Truth because they do promote truth. Their message is not directed at smokers so much as the youth. The same target market as the tobacco companies (i.e. their competition). The word itself is made up but more than likely an "izzled" spinoff of "debunk" (to expose). Hey - bottom line - marketing driven education is still knowledge - and that's never bad. Peace & Respect
I find it really amusing that people are googling "debunkify" in order to get some information and ending up here, where they will find none.
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