Rhetorical Analysis

Words: 648
Pages: 3

A mock press release written by The Onion, a publication devoted to humor and satire, was created to reveal the foolishness of consumers. Composed for marketers and consumers alike, in this article the audience would discover the way gullible consumers can be deceived by the mind games of marketers. The subject of this mock press release is the ideology of consumerism and the impulse of people to believe anything that looks even remotely legitimate. This article manages to effectively utilize fake terms, hyperbole, and false testimony to satirize how products are falsely marketed to gullible consumers. All throughout this article, the use of fabricated terms that sound scientific provide this false sense of truth to the audience. Interestingly, The Onion begins advertising the new MagnaSoles shoe inserts by stating that they “stimulate and soothe wearer’s feet using no fewer than five forms of pseudoscience.” Immediately, the audience will read “science” and think, ‘wow, this is actually real,’ when in reality, pseudoscience literally translates to fake science. Only five lines in and the audience is already being tricked. Again we see this strategy being used when …show more content…
False testimony occurs when a statement used within a document is untrue or invalid, and this article makes use of such a statement taken from a Helene Kuhn of Edison, New Jersey. Kuhn declared that “after wearing MagnaSoles for seven weeks,” she noticed a “significant decrease in pain” and could finally walk without any discomfort. Quite frequently, marketing companies will use false testimony to give their products a trustworthy foundation. If other consumers are leaving positive reviews about a product, and that product is being sold successfully, this is enough to convince other consumers that the product is worth paying for. Even if in reality, it was actually just time, not the use of MagnaSoles, that healed Ms. Kuhn’s