Wellness was originally a concept that emphasized physical and mental health and happiness, but over time, it has become commercialized. Now, it’s not just about being healthy, it’s a symbol of luxury consumption that you have to pay more for.
Language exists to communicate with others. That’s why when we say something, it’s supposed to mean the same thing to everyone in society. This is the social nature of language. However, the actual meaning and feel of words is constantly changing. For example, “nuclear power” used to be perceived as a terrorizing force for building nuclear bombs. While the dictionary meaning of “nuclear power” is the same today, its use as a way to generate electricity has transformed it into a more familiar word. As the society in which language exists is constantly changing, language also has a history of production, change, and disappearance.
The dictionary definition of ‘well-being’ is to emphasize physical and mental health and happiness. But does the word retain its dictionary meaning in the real world? The bottom line is that the word that took the world by storm in the early 2000s has changed from its dictionary meaning to something else.
If you search for “wellness” on Google, more than half of the results are related to food. The foods that are categorized as “wellness foods” are organic, healthy foods, vegetables, fruits, etc. These are all foods that are eaten for health, but foods that are eaten for mental health or happiness are not searched for as wellness foods. If you include foods that make you feel satisfied and happy, there’s no reason why instant or fast food can’t be included in the category of wellness. However, they are categorized as the opposite of wellness foods.
The same phenomenon can be seen with behaviors. For example, quitting smoking is a physical health behavior. However, giving up addictive cigarettes can also cause stress, which is detrimental to mental health. Nevertheless, quitting smoking is considered a “wellness” behavior. If you’re only thinking about happiness, playing games or reading novels, comics, or movies can be wellness behaviors that give you pleasure. But these behaviors don’t have the word “wellness” attached to them. If you search for “wellness” on the portal right now, all the results are described in terms of health, except for “wellness music”. Wellness has come to mean only physical health.
I recently asked several people what they thought wellness was. All I got back in response were negative comments: puns, gimmicks, and magic words that drive up prices. The word tied together was commercial gentrification.
As the word became more popular and people began to look for “wellness,” things that were considered healthy began to be labeled as wellness. People saw these products and were willing to pay more for health. Companies saw this and started labeling their products with the word wellness. For example, Korean beef, paprika, oyster sauce, and miso, which existed before the word “wellness” was invented, were labeled as wellness. Even chlorella, which was on the verge of being discontinued due to its bitter taste, has been reborn as a ‘wellness food’ and is used as an ingredient in ice cream, sujebi, and bibimbap. The only exception to this was “wellness music,” which was not related to health, and that was just an album of classical songs released in 2004 and 2009. Well-being has become a magic word that sells, even on simple classical albums.
In addition to this marketing strategy, the wellness craze has led to the release of many high-end products that are even labeled as ‘wellness’. Companies started to sell more expensive wellness products for similar products. This is similar to what happened with fair trade coffee a few years ago. If fair-trade coffee was a way to identify consumers who would pay more for others, wellness products are a way to identify consumers who would pay more for themselves. In other words, for companies, wellness is about asking consumers, “Would you pay more to be healthy?”
The focus on health is also explained in commercial terms. While you can say that one product is healthier than another, there’s not much you can say with confidence that it will make you mentally happy. Companies focused on health as a more concrete and universal concern, rather than something abstract. Health is a long-standing concern for humans, as evidenced by the example of Qin Shi Huang, who dreamed of immortality, so focusing on physical health has been a huge success. For example, the market for air purifiers, which were marketed as “wellness appliances,” grew steadily every year. Other companies saw the success of wellness marketing and followed suit, and the media kept telling us that “wellness” meant health. In the minds of the public, wellness became defined as “good for your health”.
Understanding that wellness is a word that companies use to make money, one question arises: does wellness really exist, or is it just a name for something? In my opinion, it does exist, at least in terms of what it aims to achieve. Although social and cultural differences can cause great variations, most phenomena follow a normal distribution, so it is possible to aim for something that is healthy. There are indeed “wellness products” that are healthy for most people, if not all people.
But whether or not products labeled as wellness actually promote wellness is another matter. In some cases, they are, but in others, they’re just labeled for the sake of luxury. As we’ve mentioned before, just throwing the word “wellness” on a product is a guaranteed PR win, so companies have slipped it into products that have nothing to do with it. Companies have also created products that claim to be “wellness” by fudging ingredients or manufacturing methods. For example, cosmetics that are “100% natural” but only have a pattern, or “eco-friendly” wallpaper that emits harmful substances. Even today, it’s easy to find false and exaggerated claims that abuse the word wellness. With limited information, consumers are unable to determine if a wellness product is truly healthy or if it is labeled as such because it sounds good. For this reason, consumers are bound to be suspicious of wellness products.
As consumers have begun to question the meaning of wellness products, the meaning of wellness has changed. It went from simply being “healthy” to “paying more for health”. Now, for both entrepreneurs and consumers, wellness means “pay more for health”.
A few years ago, the wellness craze was all over the world, but suddenly it’s hard to see it anymore. Perhaps it’s because consumers are realizing the commercialized meaning of wellness and questioning the efficacy of products labeled as wellness, or maybe it’s because wellness has become so generic that it’s hard to differentiate. For whatever reason, wellness is no longer a marketing buzzword, and companies have begun to strip away the wellness label, but it’s still out there. It’s just not as visible in the media, and it’s become part of everyday language. It’s one of those words that has become part of everyday life, like UCC or big data.
And its meaning may have started out as the original dictionary definition, as an individual’s efforts to pursue physical and mental health and happiness, but with the commercialization of wellness, it has become a commercial gimmick. Wellness has become a label that asks, “Are you willing to pay more for health?”
