From Wiki
My research for Innerscape is coming along nicely, but now I need a name for the evil multinational that developed the food which had such a terrible effect on Miira and other refugees like her.
I can’t use the name of a real company, much as I would like to, so I have to make something up. Any thoughts?
This is a little ‘press release’ I came up with today. Not sure if I’ll use it but I like it for now :
“After twenty years of legal wrangling, the Australian Attorney-General today announced the government intended to take multinational food giant, XX, before the International Court of Justice.
The UN ruling – that multinational corporations possess legal personalities, and hence are subject to international law – has been in force since 2077, but this is only the second time a sovereign State has taken a multinational to the ICJ for a violation of human rights.
The Australian government contends that XX did not exercise due diligence in its development of low-cost nutrition, Total Care. The government further maintains that after becoming aware of the deleterious health effects of Total Care on the refugees flooding into Australia, XX pursued an active campaign of denial and coverup that lasted over thirty years, and continues to this day.
Total Care, which was distributed to all refugees coming to Australia from the Pacific Rim between 2060 and 2085, is claimed to have caused a variety of rare cancers in 85% of the first generation of refugees, and birth defects in subsequent generations. The use of Total Care was discontinued in February, 2086.’
World Holo News, May 13, 2100.
And while you’re at it, any ideas for a better name than Total Care? Every time I look at it I’m reminded of toothpaste. 😦
Just as a matter of interest, my research today revealed that multinationals are not subject to international law. I even found an article from Utrecht university saying the only way this would change is if multinationals were deemed to have personalities – i.e being an entity. The author thinks this will happen – when governments get the intestinal fortitude to push it through. I figured it would take at least 50 years!
I’m back at school all day tomorrow, so won’t be able to read your comments until the evening. Please keep them coming though!
cheers
Meeks
Meeka's Mind 
August 10th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Oceanux for the evil company name, a play on Oceanus, but with an evil flux.
I would suggest wordplay with “ambrosia” to find a food name. Or maybe “manna.,” since manna wasn’t nearly so delectable.
LikeLike
August 11th, 2013 at 9:16 am
Thanks Stephanie. Great suggestions both. 😀 I like manna as I grew up a Catholic. 😉
LikeLike
August 12th, 2013 at 10:29 am
Either one would also help with the sell-factor, and would be all the more disappointing when it turned out to be poison.
LikeLike
August 12th, 2013 at 11:00 am
lol – yes, little things like that can often backfire badly. 😀
LikeLike
August 13th, 2013 at 1:21 am
What name did you finally choose?
I’m sure I’m not the only one dying of curiosity.
LikeLike
August 13th, 2013 at 9:16 am
lol – Sorry, I’ve been meaning to post an update but for some unaccountable reason the writing has been going gang busters [is that still current?] and I’ve been consumed! It’s a lovely feeling so I’ve been indulging myself.
I’ll try and post the update later today [my day]. 😀
LikeLike
August 9th, 2013 at 3:04 am
Late to the party, but he’s my tuppence worth: You’ve got 3 choices: 1, base the corporation’s name on simple words. I do think the name of any international corporation towards the end of this century is going to be based on English words that are easy for non-English-speaking peoples to pronounce. However, this will be limiting. “Total Nutrition” is a good starting point, but it is a challenge to combine simple words in a new way.
2, use a common surname, like “McDonald’s”, and drop in back story about how it became this huge corporation.
3, invent a completely new name by (this is what I do) sitting down with a pen and paper, writing a few simple words on it, and trying out different combinations.
I like the snippet you gave us there – sounds good!
LikeLike
August 9th, 2013 at 11:08 am
Hey! Welcome Chris. 🙂 I like your suggestions. I suspect I’ll have to go with #3 because of legal? and trademark considerations. It’s definitely not easy though, at least for me. Human/alien names I’m comfortable with, corporations are a whole different matter.
LikeLike
August 10th, 2013 at 4:51 am
I’ve had to come up with a few, sometimes by using a common surname, others by being straightforward descriptions of what the corporation does. It IS a tricky thing (certainly for me) to get within “acceptable limits”. It’s so easy to be too obvious or too bland. Finding the right balance can often depend on how the name comes off the page at the beta stage. You can always go with something “good enough” and write away, and let it simmer as you write the story.
LikeLike
August 11th, 2013 at 9:45 am
To be honest, this has been simmering for quite a while already, and I suddenly reached the point where I knew it was time to give the corporation a personality if you will. Giving it a name, the right name, would bring all my vague ideas together. But it is hard. Thank god for online friends!
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 2:16 pm
Sorry, but I can’t add anything 😦 Unfortunately my brain doesn’t work this way. Fortunately there are so many great bloggers whose brains do work this way! 🙂 I can just sit back and enjoy the brilliance of others! I am very curious to know what you will decide.
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 9:03 pm
lol – You saw my toothpaste name! Was not kidding about needing help. 😉 I’m going to put all those suggestions together in a post, maybe tomorrow. May even try to stick a poll in there. This stuff is brilliant. 🙂
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 1:59 am
This is such a great thread!
Really enjoying the suggestions and the scope of the ideas.
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 1:22 pm
Me too! I had a fair idea there were some very smart peeps out there after the EGG cover feedback, but this exceeds even my expectations. 🙂 Honestly, you couldn’t pay for comments this good.
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 7:17 am
Some of the most sinister corporations in SF have perfectly normal sounding names, except when you say them they have this air of the night about them. Weyland-Yutani corporation, Cyberdyne Systems, etc. I’m not sure I would believe a story with a corporation named E.V.I.L. Inc. 😀 So maybe something generic like Morgan International or Unifood.
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:28 pm
Oh I love Cyberdyne Systems. It’s such a fantastic name. One of the things complicating the naming process is that I have to be so careful not to accidentally use a ‘real’ name. Once we have a shortlist I’m going to have google each one to be sure nothing comes up!
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 11:33 pm
I’m afraid though Cyberdyne is taken by a Japanese company making a powered exoskeleton.
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 10:24 am
Just wait until they release their T-800 model…… 😉
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
I had to look this up. Holden T-800 turbo kit?
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 1:54 pm
The Schwarzenegger version Terminator. 😀
Skynet is the computer system that was developed by Cyberdyne systems and decided to kill us all….. You know, if movies were true…. 🙂
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 9:06 pm
Duh…..-cries- I’m a huge Terminator fan, well of the first two anyway. How did my brain translate that to a Holden of all things? Sheesh.
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 10:53 pm
Huge Terminator fan here too. 😀 I can’t tell you how often we trot out a quote from it.
I figured you were having a brain fade, there is no way you aren’t a fan, although you probably still haven’t seen Serenity/Firefly so I won’t jokingly suggest Blue Sun. 😉 “two by two, hands of blue….”
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 11:15 pm
Yes, very much brain fade I’m afraid. It’s times like this I just know I’m getting um elderly. And no, I still haven’t. I’m a failure as a geek coz I don’t know how to watch those shows on the net. Delete that. I just did some checking and apparently I can get it on Foxtel… if I pay $14 a week? Gah. Now I remember why we don’t get Foxtel. 😦
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 11:31 pm
Get the DVD, movies or the series. It is a worthwhile investment in geekiness. 😀
LikeLike
August 9th, 2013 at 11:13 am
My daughter’s boyfriend has introduced us to come great series – e.g. Dexter – via DVD so I might just do that as a treat for me. 😀
LikeLike
August 9th, 2013 at 12:29 pm
It is the perfect weather for a weekend on the couch with something excellent to watch. 🙂
If you do see it I would love to hear what you think of it.
LikeLike
August 9th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
I agree re the weather, but this weekend I’m going to be hunched over my desk, playing Assassins Creed III for the PC. 😉 It’s been haunting me and I finally gave in. If the weather clears a little I’ll be going into Doncaster to pick the game up from EB Games. Otherwise I may have to wait until tomorrow. -rubs hands-
LikeLike
August 9th, 2013 at 2:27 pm
JB HIFI Doncaster, Firefly, complete series $50.98. Just sayin’ 😉
Enjoy your game, and remember to sleep!! 🙂
LikeLike
August 11th, 2013 at 9:51 am
lmao – I finally bought it yesterday [Assassins Creed III]. I did start playing last night but not for long. I’m looking forward to having another play today. 😀
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 1:30 pm
George! You are so brilliant I could cry. I just changed the beginning of Innerscape to show Miira in an exoskeleton [I figured by then wheelchairs would be a thing of the past]. You’ve just saved me heaps of research. -hugs- Thank you, THANK YOU!
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 10:57 pm
I struggle to find names for my own fictional organizations, so I’m afraid I won’t be much help. Sounds intriguing though!
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:28 pm
I’ve never had to do it before so I’m really scratching my head.
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 10:30 pm
The product is Bountiful. The product logo is a cornucopia with food spilling out of it, morphing into the product in the foreground. The umbrella corporation is Yours, with subsidiary umbrella corporations in each country named Your India, Your USA, Your Sri Lanka, etc.
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:31 pm
Oh I really really like Bountiful! And the idea of the product logo is just perfect. 😀 Unfortunately I don’t think I could have ‘Your’ as I know you can’t trademark generic names or words. Unless I could think of an acronym for Y.O.U.R. 🙂
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 8:44 pm
H.A.P.P.I. -> Hungry And Proud Produce Inc. with an alien leaf or body part from the things they use to make their products sticking out from the side of the “I” to make it look like a “Y” at first glance.
Happy … bubbly letters to hide their true face.
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:32 pm
lmao – that is gruesome! But very clever. 😀
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 8:41 pm
One of the things I do professionally is name products, companies and services. Yup — I get paid for it. LOL…
There are many approaches and for a company name like this one, I suggest you start with a benign word — something warm and fuzzy like HOME or HEARTH or NUTRITION and either have the individual letters stand for other words (even made up scientific words or inventors’ names) so that the ultimately the warm & fuzzy associations are completely undermined.
Just a directional thought. Send me a direct email if you’d like. The Name Game is fun.
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:36 pm
lol – I’m definitely having fun reading the comments! This is my treat for the day.
I like the idea of the name sounding benign but I just can’t think of anything that feels right. Part of my problem is that in my head I see ‘Monsanto’. Trying to shake that is proving difficult!
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 11:36 pm
Hmmm… So Robinson United International Nutrition or Peterson Amalgamated International Nutrition aren’t overly appropriate then…. 😉
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
lmao – I HUGE hugs for those! R.U.I.N. and P.A.I.N are lovely.
Btw, I guess you’re probably too young to remember the TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E.? It was a spy spoof in the late 60’s? -cough- I’ll crawl back to the Jurassic now.
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 1:59 pm
I wasn’t a tv viewer then but I do know of that one. 🙂
LikeLike
August 8th, 2013 at 9:05 pm
-grin- Ah the classics never fade. 😉
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 5:57 pm
I think GC ( Global Commodities) for the company even though I’d love to suggest Montanos ( WC was a temptation too, Worldwide Commodities but I decided no firm names themselves after the dunny) and maybe FeedUp for the food though I like Metan’s NutriSynth ( why not, the woman’s a genius and anyway she scares me to death).
The way things are going maybe Multinationals will become liable under International law sooner rather than later when the world realises that what Monsanto do in South America with RoundUp openly, they’re doing elsewhere more secretively. One judge recently agreed that a farmer was wrong to plant seed that had been ‘contaminated’ by Monsanto because it breached their rights?? That can’t go on and justice must prevail at some point unless she is now prostituting herself across the world in the name of profit.
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 6:24 pm
FeedUp is good, I imagine it being their animal feed arm. Same product just a different label and higher cost….. 🙂
Oooh, it gets to be F U then too. Perfect! 😀
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:36 pm
LMAO! FU? Priceless but I don’t think I dare!
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:41 pm
Oh… you could have something there – GCI Global Commodities Inc…or… WCI, with just a hint for those in the know?
As for Monsh*tso, they’ve been taking farmers to court and the cleaners in the US and Canada as well. Makes me want to chew rusty nails.
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 5:19 pm
Total Care does sound like toothpaste! (RACV as well…..) how about NutriSynth?
As for an evil corporation…. Hmmmm…. GEMSO? Global emergency management and supply organisation.
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:46 pm
lol – yeah, Total Care was pretty bad. I rather like NutriSynth. Not sure about GEMSO – it sounds like an offshoot of the UN?
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 5:00 pm
Arrgghhh… GOCAC but GROCAC is good too if you can think if a matching word for the R.
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 5:22 pm
Ruling! Global Ruling Organisation etc…. I think you might have hit on Monsanto’s secret name. 😉
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
Excellent 🙂
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:37 pm
Damn, I’m reading these from top to bottom so I don’t know what this is about yet!
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:44 pm
Ah hah… I’m catching up.
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:47 pm
-blinks- I really should have started in reverse order lol. GROCAC?
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Monsanto… me too, of course.
Off the top of my head GROCAC – Global Organisation Controlling All Commodities, and TruNu. Good luck.
LikeLike
August 6th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
Monsanto.
Kidding! (It’s 2 in the morning and I’m punchy. I’ll sleep on it, but other people will probably beat me to it with better names anyway.)
LikeLike
August 7th, 2013 at 10:49 pm
lol – you got it in one. Exactly the name in the back of my head. Pity I’d get sued to kingdom come. 😉
LikeLike