The Presentation of Products to Consumers in The Onion Magnasoles: Rhetorical Analysis

In the mock press release from, The Onion, the author satirizes how products are marketed to their consumers and how people are gullible enough to believe all that marketers say about their product. By describing MagnaSoles, a fake product, the author brings about humor and realization in that most marketing campaigns are bogus. To achieve their purpose, the author uses his diction, appeals to ethos, and includes imagery to satire marketing.

By using his diction, the author’s connotation behind his words satirizes marketers and the ridiculous claims that they place on their products. Through describing MagnaSoles as a, “total-foot rejuvenation system”, the reader can hear the sarcasm dripping from these words. Usually, these specific types of words are used in overplayed infomercials which overhype the product in attempt to sell. When a fake consumer describes their “intelligent” decision to buy MagnaSoles, they comment on how the product is “clearly endorsed” by doctors. Using these words, along with fake scientific-sounding jargon, reveals the connotation that people are gullible for believing that these doctors are real, just as many consumers of actual products for sale believe these products are endorsed by “doctors”. These doctors’ endorsements are used to make the product seem better and the gullible consumers believe what is put in front of them. With the phrase, “healing power of crystals”, the connotation is implied that anyone should see how this is clearly fake, satirizing how many customers believe anything a product’s’ website says. Through using diction, the author pokes fun at marketers and those dumb enough to fall for their bogus products.

The author also appeals to ethos to satire marketers and their consumers by showing how those who are interested in buying a product, will believe anything they hear. By using customers testimonies, the product seems to actually works, and creates so called proof that the product does what it claims. This account creates a liaison between the customer and the marketer as people will believe “real” people. By using Helen Kuhn’s testimony of her saying, “Just try to prove that MagnaSoles didn’t heal me”, the product seems to have proof that it works just as many real ads do. Using customer reviews on the MagnaSole, just as infomercials do, pokes fun at those who purchase certain products after hearing good reviews, whether it be from a friend or the TV. By using quotes from Dr. Arthur Bluhe, “the pseudoscientist who developed the products”, the audience becomes susceptible to being manipulated by the company as this man is posing as a doctor and seems to know what he is talking about. Companies who create bogus products like MagnaSoles are being satirized through this as many use “doctors” to promote their products too. By appealing to ethos, just as many infomercials do, the author shows how people believe anything they hear and pokes fun at companies for the way they market to consumers.

Through using imagery, the author describes the product and its’ effect in such detail as to be sarcastic about the benefits of MagnaSoles. By painting the image of “healing crystals used to stimulate dead foot cells with vibrational biofeedback”, the reader is able to see and understand how ridiculous this marketing campaign sounds.

This makes fun of ads that try to in depth describe their product, but over exaggerate it and make it sound ridiculous. To continue with imagery, the author describes that foot problems come from when “the frequency of one’s foot is out of alignment with the Earth”. Anyone who reads this will instantly see how fake this sounds, yet people continue to purchase idiotic products like this. Through using imagery, The Onion describes the product and its’ effects so vividly as to satirize the product and its’ consumer.

The Onion’s mock press release on MagnaSoles was meant to satirize marketers and the action they take to get consumers to purchase their product. By using diction, appealing to ethos, and adding imagery, the author shows how ridiculous most ads are.

Satire in The Onion

The practice of satire can lighten the thought of serious events, and bring a humorous approach, to make the issue known and aware to those engaged. In the article written by “The Onion”, a shoe-insert is being advertised as the cure to heal feet, as well as other body damage. The product being marketed has customer opinions and how the insert has its benefits. On the other hand, it doesn’t have any logical facts or information that gives the article the real life effects of a typical persuasive advertisement. The writer of the article makes readers believe the realistic ad, but also wants approach humor in a remote way using key literary devices.

Although humor can be interpreted in different forms and appeal to various audiences, the satirical strategy appeals to a different approach of humor. The article exaggerates calls on the authority to satirize or mock the use of expert opinions to support a product’s objective performance. Dr. Arthur Bluni, the product’s pseudoscientist, mocks the false experts that are often used in advertisements to draw customers by appealing to authority rather than reality. Dr. Bluni claims, “What makes MagnaSoles different from other insoles is the way it harnesses the power of magnetism to properly align the biomagnetic field around your foot” (5-9). The scientist provides good information that would typically lure an interest buyer in, but there is no scientific facts to support or give reason to why this product is more beneficial than other in-soles on the market.

Clearly, the approach in the advertisement is not intended for serious inquiries, but it is also intended to mock product marketing by using extremely complicated and confusing language to make the product seem attractive. Dr. Bluni further boasts in the article of the MagnaSoles’ ‘patented Magna-Grid design, which features more than 200 isometrically aligned Countour Points” (11-13). The use of ‘patented’ and the trademark symbol attempts to make the product seem more legitimate and professional. The writer introduces ‘Magna-Grid design’ and ‘Contour points’ to simply provide complicated words with no clarification whatsoever. In fact, these words seem to be an attempt to hide behind great terms an unremarkable object. For marketing ploys, this tactic is often used, and the satirical article uses its own meaningless terminology as a facade to ridicule realistic ads that also do so.

The author describes the benefits of Magnasoles throughout the entire piece by describing the seemingly empirical aspects that make these insoles so great. The author uses scientific language, which is unfamiliar to the average person, to demonstrate that ‘magnetism’ has the ability to restore the ‘normal bio-flow’ of the foot, and the ‘healing power of crystals.’ The use of such nonsensical words by the narrator is mocking the false information that people would accept as long as it is portrayed by someone who claims to have the correct knowledge. The author criticizes the capitalist culture that makes objects completely useless by bombarding the public with false information about a product that is just ‘$19.95.’

Satirization reveals the way in which advertisers conceal and distort their goods through fake experts, skewed sources, and irrelevant jargon through distorted and exaggerated appeals to authority and vague terminology. With such absurd words and unrealistic tactics, it is easy to recognize the parody of the article by insulting actual ads that use such strategies.

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