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Satire In The Onion

565 Words3 Pages

The Onion article employs its usual gimmick of satire to highlight the absolute travesty that consumerism has done to the advertising world. This satire shows how consumerism has caused people to become sort of naive to the facets of advertising and in the process unknowingly suspend their well known beliefs and get sucked into the alluring trap of advertising. The author of the article immediately establishes his authoritative tone and so called expertise by providing troves of ¨scientific information¨ that literally drowns the reader into believing this will somehow benefit your life. It is very reminiscent of a formal proposal that provides a so proclaimed sensible solution, yet completely outrageous and abnormal in all regards. The satire benefits greatly in regards of the power of the satire from the continued profession and authoritative tone and formal proposal format which adds power to the argument of the satire. Especially the use of words such as ¨biofeedback¨ and ¨terranometry¨ give an ironic legitimacy to the article, as these words mean absolutely nothing yet keep the article powerful.

The real target of the article is to satirize the overwhelming control of American …show more content…

It provides a wonderfully positive, drone like testimony from Helene Kuhn who dares anyone to try and prove MagnaSoles did not heal her of her affliction. The outrageousness of the statement parallels the actual real life testimonies used in real ads, which adds to the power of the satire in the utilization of actual tactics. The power of these quotes continues to build to the article’s moral of the shamelessness of certain approaches in order to sell a product. Adding to the drive that companies will promise anything in order to make a sell, even if the promises they make are so out of left field that the consumer should know they are

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