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Arda Sahiner
Ms. Moomau
AP English Lang., pd. 8
April 21, 2014
MagnaSoles: The Beauty of Advertising
The Onion is an online publication devoted to satire of situations or ideas that people
continually encounter in the modern world. One example of this satire comes from an article
about a hypothetical product: MagnaSoles shoe inserts. The article is framed from the
perspective of an advertiser and mocks the stereotypical advertisement. In order to satirize
how products are marketed to customers, the article employs excessively convoluted diction
and fallacious testimonies.
The article uses complex-sounding words and phrases to mock advertisements that
promise life-changing solutions to everyday problems. For example, the article cites that
MagnaSoles use a patented Magna-Grid design, which features more than 200 isometrically
aligned Contour Points (11-13). Here, the article features professional-sounding words
such as patented and in an attempt to legitimize the product. However, the article has
no explanation about what the Magna-Grid design or the Contour Points actually are,
leaving the impression of overcompensation for gaping flaws in quality. Therefore, the article
implies that while advertisements have no lack of professional-sounding words, they are only
meant to hide the absurdity latent in the products they vouch for. The article also claims that
only MagnaSoles utilize the healing power of crystals to restimulate dead foot cells with
vibrational biofeedback (31-32). Again, even a word such as utilize, though not
particularly essential to understanding the function of the product, unnecessarily gives the
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impression of intelligence to make up for lack of content. For example, a promise to
restimulate dead foot cells through vibrational biofeedback may seem like a great idea at
first, but the article never expands upon why this would be good for the customer and never
mentions this concept again. The overflow of information provided by the mock
advertisement confounds the reader much like some real advertisements actually do, which
thus criticizes an overall lack of clarity and explanation on the part of advertisers. Moreover,
the article vouches that this biofeedback works through a process similar to that by which
medicine makes people better (32-34). By juxtaposing such complex language with an
oversimplification about how medicine works, the article simultaneously exaggerates both
overly convoluted language and excessively simple explanations that are found in modern
advertisements. Thus, through its use of elaborate diction, the article not only criticizes the
tendency for advertisements to overwhelm consumers but also their tendency to make
generalizations and portray their products as panaceas.
The article also makes use of fallacious testimonies to satirize the skewed information
presented in advertisements. It cites information from Dr. Arthur Bluni, the pseudoscientist
who developed the product (9-10). Not only does the article cite from the developer of the
product (and therefore a clearly biased source), but it also reveals a hint within the name of
the source himself. First of all, though the article acknowledges Dr. Bluni as a
pseudoscientist, it still refers to him as a doctor, mocking the tendency of consumers to listen
to individuals with fancy titles. Moreover, stretching the name carefully, the name Bluni
sounds like baloney, which indicates that though he sounds professional, Dr. Bluni, along
with other pseudoscientists cited in advertisements, is not to be trusted. The article goes on to
further cite partial sources such as the products Web site and Dr. Wayne Frankel, the
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California State University biotrician who discovered terranometry (29-30, 41-43),
emphasizing and satirizing the tendency of advertisements to use the rhetorical appeal of
expert testimony. This emphasis exposes the habit of selling names rather than products,
along with a tendency to make fallacious arguments in general. The article cites testimonials
from ordinary people as well. For example, Helene Kuhn of Edison, NJ expresses her
support by challenging others to try to prove that MagnaSoles didnt heal her from an
ankle injury (58, 61-62). The article, however, also explains that it had been seven weeks
for her ankle injury to heal (59). The article therefore suggests that these isolated cases are
not good indicators of actual performance, since there are many confounding variables at
play, such as the time it takes for an ankle to heal on its own. It also illuminates the problem
with testimony from ordinary people: they tend to overlook logical reasoning when they
vouch for a product. The Onion here implies that conventional people are not familiar with
the idea that correlation is not the same as causation, criticizing advertisements for regularly
equating correlation and causation to mislead consumers.
Overall, the article from The Onion employs excessively convoluted diction and
fallacious testimonies to mock the misleading rhetorical techniques used by advertisements
to fool consumers. This satire is generally effective in achieving its goals; through its
overwhelming exaggerations, The Onion makes it clear that this article is meant to mock
advertisements. The article exposes some key, common characteristics of modern
advertisements to make its parody both relatable and funny, two very important components
to a good satire.