A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Onion

Amidst the rise of consumer culture, advertisements of all variety appeal to all sorts of people. In its press release about the MagnaSoles, fictional shoe inserts, The Onion appears to describe a new product out in stores, but actually ridicules the gullibility of American consumers and how products are marketed to customers. Using scientific jargon, comical tone, and irony, The Onion effectively satirizes how products are presented to the consumers.
Through the usage of fake scientific jargon, The Onion satirizes the MagnaSoles’ pretensions of sophistication and development. Specifically, nonsense words such as “pseudosciences,” “biomagnetic field,” “biofeedback,” and “Terranometry” appear throughout the article. The marketers behind the MagnaSoles use these words in an effort to sound scientific and academic, giving a false sense of credibility so that consumers will purchase the product. The developers of the MagnaSoles also state that the product converts …show more content…
The Onion satirizes the scientific-sounding literature in a typical press release by including false claims and incorrect facts. For instance, “Only MagnaSoles utilize the healing power of crystals to restimulate dead foot cells with vibrational biofeedback.” This statement is humorous in the sense that the publicists are entirely wrong. No matter what, once the cells die, they cannot be brought back to life. The pattern continues with the amusing false claims of the wonders of MagnaSoles, “The resultant harmonic energy field rearranges the foot’s naturally occurring atoms, converting the pain-nuclei into pleasing comfortrons”. This false claim of MagnaSoles misguide consumers into thinking that it is some sort of advanced technology. It is, however, impossible to convert a non existent object into another non existent object. This comical tone mocks how products are often dishonestly advertised to