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Greenspun, 1
Allie Greenspun
AP Lang-Evans
Period 5
4/22/14
Satire for the Sole (Pun Intended)
It is no secret that marketing companies frequently bend the truth in order to sell a
product to hordes of materialistic consumers. Manipulative, hyperbolic, misleading and
fallacious are just a few of the not-so-kind adjectives that come to mind when describing
the marketing process. A mock press release from The Onion, a publication specializing
in humor and satire, perhaps best exemplifies the absurdity of the marketing process
through its sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek perspective. As an advertisement for the obviously
fake “MagnaSoles shoe insert,” the press release utilizes a slew of rhetorical devices to
mock the questionable techniques employed by marketers and the inherent consumer
susceptibility to marketing techniques.
The Onion does a particularly commendable job satirizing the eyebrow raising
marketing methods that mark modern day consumer culture. The practice of using
confusing and complicated jargon so as to distort and shape the public’s perception of
products is a trademark marketing technique. The Onion satirizes this practice through
sarcastic overuse of complex and fictitious scientific terms. MagnaSoles claim to
“rearrange the foot’s naturally occurring atoms, converting the pain-nuclei into pleasing
comfortrons” and use a “cutting-edge form of pseudoscience known as Terranometry... to
convert the wearer’s own energy to match the earth’s natural vibrational rate.” The
blatant falsehoods in these claims are best epitomized by the term “pseudoscience,”
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otherwise known as methods and assumptions that are not recognized as having any
sound scientific basis. The terms “comfortrons,” “Terranometry,” and “pain-nuclei” are
also void of any real scientific significance. This excessive use of made up words is
intended to express the idea that marketers often use impressive sounding terms in place
of simpler language in order to impress consumers and glorify public perception of
products. The article also mocks the way that marketers use consumer weakness to their
advantage when advertising products such as MagnaSoles. An entire paragraph in the
article is devoted to bragging that the “$19.95 insoles are already proving popular among
consumers, who are hailing them as a welcome alternative to expensive, effective forms
of traditional medicine.” The Onion effectively points out that marketers recognize and
target the consumer desire for quick and cheap relief to problems and sarcastically
acknowledges traditional forms of medicine as being “effective.” The article specifically
mentions the effectiveness of traditional medicine to satirize the element of deception that
comes with the marketing of products that will not actually serve as viable replacements
for traditional medical procedures and treatments, but are rather less effective alternatives
that are only appealing due to their cheap price. Sarcasm, complex diction and repetition
each serve as key strategies in satirizing the manipulative techniques used by marketers
in presentation of products and targeting of consumer audiences.
Marketers are not the only group of people that play a role in the shaping of
consumer culture. The marketing process is a two way street; as long as there are
products to market, there are consumers who are willing to buy. However, with this
willingness to buy comes an inherent susceptibility to the ever-deceptive marketing
tactics thrown at consumers from every angle. The Onion particularly focuses on
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satirizing the basic human weaknesses that make consumers so susceptible to marketing
ploys. The article includes testimonies from several MagnaSoles users in order to
accomplish this. One such user, “Geoff DeAngelis of Tacoma, WA,” endorses the
product by asking fellow consumers why he, or anyone else for that matter, should have
to “pay thousands of dollars to have [his] spine realigned…when [he] can pay $20 for
insoles clearly endorsed by an intelligent-looking man in a white lab coat” that “really
seem like they’re working.” The Onion uses this testimony to blatantly mock consumers’
willingness to believe anything as long as the source of the information is someone that
they regard as educated and credible. The testimony also serves to satirize the influence
that the psychological “pack mentality” has on consumer trends; people are generally
more willing to buy a product if other consumers approve of it, even if said product is as
ridiculous and illogical as MagnaSoles. The article also mocks human gullibility. One
MagnaSoles user, “Helene Kuhn of Edison, NJ,” swears that after she twisted her ankle
and was unable to walk, “wearing MagnaSoles for seven weeks” prompted a “significant
decrease in pain” and helped her to regain the ability to walk comfortably again. The
irony in the fact that a twisted ankle takes about seven weeks to heal naturally with or
without an insole satirizes consumers’ unconscious desire to believe that any product that
they spent money on is helping improve their life despite the fact that many times it is not
actually producing any discernable change. Lastly, the article satirizes the fundamental
human weakness of pain that marketers so easily take advantage of. All of the consumers
who claim that MagnaSoles work are suffering from some kind of pain. DeAngelis
suffers from “chronic back-pain” while Kuhn suffers from excruciating foot pain that
began when she “twisted [her] ankle something awful.” Furthermore, MagnaSoles offer
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the appeal of not only foot pain reduction, but the possibility to reap the benefits of a
product that can enable “your soles to heal your entire body as you walk” and “restimulate dead foot cells” as well. The ridiculous, unrealistic solutions that MagnaSoles
offer to problems that have nothing to do with foot pain satirize consumers’ willingness
to buy anything that claims to reduce as much pain as possible in a desperate attempt to
feel better. The use of consumer testimonies, obviously irony and exposure of inherent
human weakness effectively satirizes the variety of disadvantages that consumers face
when confronted with marketing tactics and exposes just how susceptible people really
are to these techniques.
The Onion truly lives up to its reputation as a humorous and satirical publication
in this mock press release for MagnaSoles. Through use of a combination of overt
sarcasm, sharp irony, exaggeration and mock consumer testimonies, the article
effectively pokes fun at questionable marketing techniques and consumer susceptibility.
Issues such as marketers’ use of illusory and over exaggerated descriptions of products
and the targeting of human weakness are highlighted with a comical commentary from a
marketer’s point of view. The publication also comments on the laughable way that
consumers’ gullibility and ignorance lead them to fall victim to marketing ploys. With an
intriguing point of a view and successful utilization of rhetorical tactics, the article
certainly takes a clear and serious stance on the issue despite the flippant nature of its
content.