The Onion Rhetorical

With the use of criticism, this press release is used to satirize how advertisement is degrading to Americans, and to mock the ordeal methods used by marketers to sell products to consumers as absurd. By using obvious fictional fads, and somewhat surprisingly effective persuasive writing skills, this article is humorous and completely irrelevant. However with the correct use of persuasive writing techniques, mixed with irrelevant, and unrealistic factual information the authors create a humorous satirical scene.
The mocking starts right away in the first paragraph of the piece. The first sentence “stressed and sore-footed Americans everywhere” starts off the first part of hyperbole with the word “Everywhere” indicating that they are exaggerating how many American’s have sore feet for not EVERY American has a sore foot. It provides the reader a sense of exaggeration in the piece. In attempt to establish the need the authors use “Americans everywhere are clamoring for the exciting new MagnaSoles..” This provides the audience with the fact Americans are too caught up with having the new latest item.
Next the author uses the diction choices “stimulate” and “soothe” to describe the action the magnaSoles will have on the wearer’s feet. This gives an irrelevant outcome for the words stimulate and soothe are not related at all and have different definitions. Towards the end of the paragraph the authors use unrealistic diction choices and sarcasm to make their claim. The word “Pseudoscience” is used to describe the type of “5 forms” of science used to make the MagnaSoles. The authors use the word “pseudoscience” for the word “Pseudo” means fake, allowing the reader to see that they are talking about fake science.

They do this in hopes to have the readers think on the advertisements they watch and how much of the information on those advertisements are accurate and true. The authors used “which stimulate an soothe the wearers feet using no fewer than five forms of pseudoscience” as a form of paradox to help support the idea that they are creating for the audience.
The purpose changes throughout the piece. The second paragraph changes purpose compared to paragraph one. In the next few sections/paragraphs the writers are mocking the archetypal use of “Expert” testimony to authority to convince consumers of the inaccurately fictional product. The first Rhetorical device used is Testimony to authority, starting with the first sentence. They use “expert” quotes from the made up Dr. Bluni.
The doctor tries to explain how different the insoles are by stating “what makes MagnaSoles different…” Then as he continues the author uses sarcasm by stating “harnesses the power of magnetism to property align the bio magnetic field around your foot.” The author uses these inaccurate and fictional “smart words” to show the audience the illogical information used on today’s advertisements is believed by such gullible consumers. As the second paragraph goes on the authors are in hopes to convince their audience to realize that they believe in whatever someone says as long as they are using bold words.
In order to do this the writes use another diction choice “isometrically” which is a made up fiction word. As the piece progresses on the authors use sarcasm to convince the readers that consumers’ are believable to marketers as long as they are using “scientific-sounding literature”.
The authors do so by adding “according to the scientific- sounding literature trumpeting the new insoles”. Another piece of sarcasm and paradox used in this paragraph to again show the guillableness of the consumers and stupidity of the advertisements in today’s era is “reflexology.. Establishes correspondence between every point on the human foot and another between of the body..”
The diction “Reflexology” is another fictional word the author uses to show how gullible the audience is because it sounds scientific so “it must be true”. “Correspondence between every point on the human foot and another between of the body..” is incorrect information. Lastly in that sentence to prove the point the author is trying to get across he also adds “enabling your soles to heal your entire body as you walk” . With this entire paragraph put the way it is so sarcastically it allows the readers to see how foolish they are when they don’t see past the improper evidence the marketers give off.
Moving into the fourth paragraph, which still contains the same purpose as the second paragraph, the authors use paradox to get the claim across to the audience. Such as “ MagnaSoles utilize the healing power of crystals to restimulate dead foot cells with vibrational biofeedback..” The author uses this paradox to show the MagnaSoles “appearance of usefulness”. As the satire continues the authors continue to use mocking fiction words such as “pseudoscience”, “terranometry”, and “pseudoscientists”.
The authors add in sarcasm in lines 35-38 to help the audience visualize the “top” science that are issued for advertisements are most likely fakes. Such as “..developed specially for intergraded products by some of the nation’s top pseudoscientists” . starting line 39 another fictional word is added in to help the purpose of mocking the ordeal methods used by marketers to sell products to consumers, and the word is “Terranometry” which is the mockly said to be discovered by Dr. Frankel who “Discovered” Terranomtry.
This sets up imagery for the audience to see how the Fake scientists “discovered” the research for the product and “Developed the research” for the products in real life are just lying their way through the marketing agencies and the consumers.
Lines 43-45 gives off more untruthful information that the writers purposely wrote to help the readers gain more of an understanding that the commercials and advertisements they see day to day have non trustworthy information on them in order to sell better because of the desire for greed. The authors write “if the frequency of one’s foot is out of alignment with the earth, the entire body will suffer” this helps the author’s claim that they are trying to make. Throughout this paragraph unrealistic diction choices such as “terranometry” and “kilofrankels” are used to let the reader see the marketer’s desire for money is so strong that they are willing to lie their way into consumers mind to get a sale.
Moving into the final section of the piece the authors use Testimony of authority and sarcasm to help the reader see the stupidity of the consumers and to finalize the logic that the science to develop most inventions are false, the need is false, and the product is false. The authors add in a sarcastic quote “I twisted by ankle something awful… but after wearing MagnaSoles for seven weeks, ive noticed a significant decrease in pain..”
This allows the audience to indicate the logic of the consumers gets mentally disrupted by the customers thinking the “product” healed them when in all truth it was nature. It pushes the reader to understand that when they see a smart looking man advertising a product that they are hypnotized into thinking that the product is useful and effective when it could just as well be junk and fake.
Another Rhetorical device the writers use is Testimony to authority, and the authors use is a quote from a back-pain suffer saying “ why should I pay thousands for therapy when I can pay 20$ for insoles clearly endorsed by an Intelligent looking man in a white lab coat” This once again lets the readers see how consumers think so little as to what the product actually is and will buy anything as long as the man looks smart or is “an intelligent looking man in a white lab coat”.
The authors try getting the audience to see that the appearance of the man on the advertisement doesn’t mean the product is correct. You can dress up the appearance of a teacher, but the info they say will still be the same. The authors are trying to be paradoxical to try to argue with the illogical audience to have them change views of their own logic, and to not be having faith in unbelievable foolishness.