Satire Essay from the Onion
Advertising companies often attempt to push a product onto a customer. The Onion, a publication devoted to humor and satire, effectively mocks marketing companies through rhetorical strategies. The Onion begins with an alliteration, drawing the reader in quickly while also setting a sardonic tone. "Stressed and sore-footed American everywhere are clamoring for the exciting new MagnaSoles shoe inserts." The author also uses vivid imagery, "clamoring," "exciting," which adds to his ever present mocking tone. In line 4-5, the author states "using no fewer than five forms of pseudoscience." This conveys alliteration, which marketing companies use. This also exposes marketing techniques and mocks them, resulting in humor. The overuse of profound imagery found in the following paragraph creates more humor. With phrases such as "harnesses the power of magnetism," and "align the biomagnetic field around your foot," they author further mocks how a consumer is easily fooled by trusting in big words, which often sound correct. This would normally connect to the reader as logos, however, the author plainly uses his diction in order to create an acrimonious feeling. Where a marketing company would attempt to reassure the reader that the product and creator serves as trustworthy, this author mocks it by such diction as "its patented...design," and "features more than 200 isometrically aligned Contour Points," should give the reader a reassuring emotion, or it may portray logos. However, the authors tone reveals sarcasm. Often prevalent is the technique of supporting your sources. However, this article uses diction in order to continually support the sarcastic tone. The quote "According to a scientific-sounding literature..." mocks how markets try to sell products to consumers. Continuing on, it self proclaims itself in a mocking way. "MagnaSoles employ a brand-new, cutting-edge form of pseudoscience known as Terranometry."