Marketing companies are increasingly venturing into absurd methods to market products. In our consumer oriented society, the public’s gullibility is optimized by the marketing industry’s power. The Onion, a publication devoted to humor and satire, derides how products are marketed to consumers in order to illustrate the absurdity of marketing strategies. The Onion utilizes testimonials and clever diction to satirize the methods availed by marketers.…
With an increase in consumer culture and a minimal amount of common sense, the onion uses a satirical tone to draw attention to the consumer’s gullibility and the power of the advertising industry.…
Sociology of Consumption: “Killing Us Softly” Course Code: AHSS 1050 “Killing Us Softly”, is a documentary that explains the effects of advertising. As mentioned in the video, on a daily basis we are exposed to nearly 1 500 ads a day, and it is evident not all the ads are watched, however they do manage to make it to the back of our heads. So even if we do not pay close attention to what the ad is saying, if the product that was being advertised comes in front of us we still manage to remember that we had seen the product advertisement earlier. The documentary takes a further look at the main reason why ads are made, and the conclusion made is that when products don’t sell, ads are made in the sense, telling their customers they need the product or else they are incomplete. I believe this is a general fact, everyone know that the main needs of any person are, some type of clothes to cover their body, food to eat, water to drink and some sort of shelter. However, when these ads are presented they create an urge in the sense the person believes that have to have the product being advertised. The example given in the documentary was of ageing creams. They are advertised in a way that older aged women feel they have to have the cream or else there is something wrong with them. Another example, is straightening irons, the traditional way of straightening hair is using a hair dryer, or any ordinary straightening iron sold at the store. However, there certain brands advertised in which people believe they are better which is not true. Even though all brands are the same, just because of the ad people believe one is better than the other and that is the only one they want. So when markets say ads sell more than product, concepts, thoughts and values, this is what they refer to. Overall, ads are made in the sense to tell their customers that the product being advertised is a need to them or else they are missing out on something and they are not normal. Many people do…
Thesis: Ehrenreich’s personal use of varied rhetorical strategies allowed her to divulge the working conditions and struggles of the poverty-stricken class to the readers in order to provoke them to realize that something has to be done about poverty.…
Through the manipulation of culture, advertisement companies have inserted a self-conscious effect in order to manipulate the customer into buying the product. An excerpt from Nancy Day article on “Advertising: Information or Manipulation?”, “... Who worried about dandruff. Who was embarrassed by teeth that weren’t blinding white… Who knew that houses had to be deodorized…?” (Day). In this excerpt from Nancy Day’s article the use of rhetorical questions pauses the reader to think deeply on how advertisment have manipulated the culture to create a market in which citizens have been lead to believe that one must have impeccable teeth, nice hair and a pleasant house. In order to achieve this, companies had to very diligently plan there advertisment…
Advertisements come in various shapes, sizes, and mediums, and as humans, we are constantly surrounded by them. Whether they are on TV, radio, or in a magazine, there is no way that we can escape them. They all have their target audience for whom the advertisers have specifically designed the ad. When a company produces a commercial, their main objective is to get their product to sell. This is a multibillion-dollar industry and the advertisers study all the ways that they can attract their audience’s attention. The producers of advertisements have many tactics and strategies they use when producing an ad to get consumers to buy their product. These include things such as rhetorical appeals, logical fallacies, and “the male gaze.”…
The Onion begins with an alliteration, drawing the reader in quickly while also setting a sardonic tone. "Stressed and sore-footed American everywhere are clamoring for the exciting new MagnaSoles shoe inserts." The author also uses vivid imagery, "clamoring," "exciting," which adds to his ever present mocking tone. In line 4-5, the author states "using no fewer than five forms of pseudoscience." This conveys alliteration, which marketing companies use. This also exposes marketing techniques and mocks them, resulting in humor.…
It is without a doubt that advertisement surrounds one’s life on a daily basis. According to Consumer Reports Website, the average American is exposed to 247 commercial messages each day. In the article “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” the author Jean Kilbourne strongly believes that advertising is one of the culprits behind the objectification and violence against women. Kilbourne points out that ads depict men and especially women as objects, which subliminally lead to violence but to compare the advertising and pornographic industries is an exaggeration in many ways.…
With numerous products being advertised daily, it is qutie easy to get caught up in being interested in them. While some products seem reliable, others seem “too good to be true,” or in other words, a complete lie. In this case “The Onion publishes a mock article that is satirizing how products are marketed to consumers. As ridiculous, and absurd, as this process maybe, it doesn't stray far from typical marketing rituals. This article discusses the magnasoles company/products using the advantages and “powers” of the insoles, the price, and consumer quotes to advertize and sell their product. Each strategy is humorous and pathetic, and that is what The Onion is expressing.…
Most of us don’t realize how often we really are influenced by advertising or marketing. We wake up, turn the television on, and begin our day. But how would life be if we didn’t have constant commercials or ads blaring at us day in and day out? What if we took it all away from the beginning? Advertising, as a means of production, is used to “announce or praise in some public medium of communication in order to induce people to buy or use it.” However, what is it really used for? We have always been a dignified nation, establishing ourselves as one of the top leaders. But as we grew in strength, our image rapidly changed. The United States has always been a desired place by many; but what made that so? Was it because our Presidents and government were the best? Or was it the land that glorified the nations look? No matter when, the United State has done it’s part to make the nation look great. But why has our image always been so important? I believe it fair to say that advertising is the main culprit. While its intention to create an immediate desired reaction on the consumer was qualified at the beginning, it has evolved into identifying the underlying differences of should and should not. The ethics have been stretched and pulled, just so advertisers could target people properly, by creating an image of “lesser than” unless their product was consumed. The nation as a whole has always remained strong, however individual images have been altered. Despite the glorifying and prosperous look of the nation during the 1920’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s, advertising poorly influenced the nation because it created very materialistic lifestyles, it forced people to buy what they did not need, and it lured people into having false hopes.…
In the following essay, Jib Fowles looks at how advertisements work by examining the emotional, subrational appeals that they employ. We are confronted daily by hundreds of fads, only a few of which actually attract our attention. These few do so, according to Fowles, through "something primary and prim itive, an emotional appeal, that in effect is the thin edge of the wedge, trying to find its way into a mind." Drawing on research done by the psychologist Henry A. Murray, Fowles describes fifteen emotional appeals or wedges that advertisements exploit.…
Jay Chiat, and expert in the advertising field, looked at advertising differently than those in the advertising business today. He launched the Energizer Bunny and Apple commercials. Not only that, he started a new age of advertising during the Super Bowl. Chiat was an amazing advertiser; however, he reached a point in 1997 where he desired to leave the marketing industry. He no longer agreed with the ideals of the advertising world. In Chiat’s essay, “Illusions are Forever,” he uncovers the true ideals of the marketing industry. His essay discusses how the lies in advertising “lie in the situations, values, beliefs, and cultural norms used to sell a message.”(212) Through this essay, Chiat uses strong, vivacious words to create an image of the true face of advertising. In the same manner, he includes examples and descriptions that embellish that image and grab the attention of the reader. Amidst all of this, Chiat composes his essay in a manner that allows for a clear, insightful message to come across. Chiat is indeed bitter of advertising, but that does not affect his message. He remains conversational throughout the course of the essay. The technique that Chiat uses throughout his writing is superb, and he does an excellent job of getting his message across.…
With products such as Shamwow, Oxyclean, and the Bowflex, flooding our modern-day market, it seems as though today’s advertisement challenges the intelligence of the American populace with a single daunting task, to force people to stop thinking rationally. Intelligence is measured upon a variety of elements all stemming from rational thought; The Onion satirizes the seemingly infinite quantity of irrational thought in the world today, in an ad for a new and improved, $19.95 (plus shipping and handling), solution to any person’s foot problems. “MagnaSoles” depicts the gullibility of people by showing their reliance on various modes of the media to obtain information. In this case, lustrous qualities lure the customer, while other solidifying details cause the commercial to ensnare the modern day consumer into a trap of successful conversions of your “pain nuclei” into “pleasing comfortrons”.…
Every day we are exposed to advertising, we drive down the highway and see billboards, we scroll down our news feed on Facebook and see side ads, and our favorite shows cut to commercials on television. According to Jean Kilbourne, advertising is an over 100 billion dollar a year industry and we are exposed to over 2000 ads a day. Advertisements don’t just sell us products, they sell images, values, and concepts of success, worth, love, sexuality, and normality. By doing so, they tell us what we should be. They set unrealistic standards, especially for women. The women in advertisements are more often than not young white women portrayed as beautiful housewives and sex objects, or in other words, these women are objectified. Advertisements should be critically analyzed because they are one of the main sources of influence for young people and what they teach may not be what is best for society.…
Over the years, I’ve resorted to lots of gimmicks like these in my quest to teach students about consumerism. I try to make my students more aware of how the media naturalize consumerism through advertisements, product placement, and especially through advertiser-friendly programming. You might be surprised to hear that I find this to be the single most difficult topic to teach. I teach about many controversial media issues — ownership, violence, race and gender representation — and students contemplate these topics enthusiastically. But when it comes to consumerism, it’s a brick wall. Five minutes into any such discussion, I brace myself for the inevitable chorus of, “Oh, come on. It’s just a bunch of ads.”…