The Onion's MagnaSoles: Advertisement Analysis

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”. The principles of the mass majority would be to believe the biased, often manipulated, information that pummels their every thought. From presidential elections to how many dentists recommend Trident gum, the credibility of anything is always a factor upon the decision making process. MagnaSoles satirize the strength of ethical appeals in advertisement. “…said Dr. Arthur Bluni, the psuedoscientist who developed the product for Massillon-based Integrated Products.” Doctors reflect intelligence, yet the people reading aren’t intelligent enough to comprehend that he is a doctor of a fake science. Without the knowledge of the prefix, pseudo, (which translates to fake), it is nearly impossible to decipher the faulty logic in that statement. “Why should I pay thousands of dollars to have my spine realigned with physical therapy when I can pay $20 for insoles clearly endorsed by an intelligent looking man in a white lab coat?” This faulty logic may be misleading because they never once lie; these people are real doctors, but of a fake science. And as if the doctor’s