The Onion Advertisement Analysis

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All companies have their own ways of advertising a product, but in the end they have similar techniques. The Onion, a publication devoted to humor and satire, released an article that ridiculed the techniques of advertisement. This article mocked an advertisement for MagnaSoles in order to humor the readers, but at the same time show how advertisements can persuade individuals to buy a faulty product. Through a sarcastic and humorous touch, The Onion successfully amuses its audience and reveals the gullibility of individuals through the use of skillful diction, fallacies, and personal testimonies. All throughout the article, The Onion incorporates scientific sounding diction to convince readers why MagnaSoles is the right choice. Words Towards the end of the mock advertisement, The Onion incorporates two personal testimonies by users that claim the product works. For instance, Helene Kuhn says, "But after wearing MagnaSoles for seven weeks, I've noticed a significant decrease in pain and can now walk comfortably." Helene Kuhn alleges that MagnaSoles healed her sprained ankle after seven weeks of wearing them. Typically a sprained ankle only takes about six weeks to heal on its own. Consequently, this evidence proves that the credibility and results of MagnaSoles is not sufficient. Geoff DeAngelis says, "Why should I pay thousands of dollars to have my spine realigned with physical therapy when I can pay $20 for insoles clearly endorsed by an intelligent looking man in a white lab coat?" This quote does not even address the results of the foot soles. This person also assumes that because a man is wearing a white lab coat he is intelligent. This adds no credibility to MagnaSoles. Inserting both of these quotes into the advertisement helped The Onion prove its point that advertising a product has many different strategies. Through many rhetorical devices The Onion creates a sarcastic and humorous tone that displays the techniques used to convince an individual to buy a company's product. The importance of informing society of these techniques is to prevent one from buying a faulty product. Many people see advertisements that say "free" or "limited time deal" and automatically are intrigued. These types of arguments are scams and takes peoples money. The Onion attempted to prevent individuals from losing money by using a comical and amusing mock

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