Satire
Satirizing Product Marketing
[Your Name]
[Your University or class]
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Satire
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The satiric article on MagnaSole shoe inserts satirizes the methods that advertising firms
actually use to induce consumers to purchase products.
This article satirizes the marketing ploy of appealing to authority to convince people that
the product is good. In this article, the appeal to authority is used three different ways. This
article plays on the use of scientists saying scientific-sounding words that actually add up to a
meaningless theory to convince consumers that there is some scientific theory and proof
supporting this product. The article also satirizes the use of science to sell products by reciting
actual, proven scientific facts and then claiming, without offering any proof, that somehow their
product is connected to the established science. The third appeal to authority is the well-known
tactic of hiring an actor to wear a white coat and look and sound like a doctor while never
actually claiming to be a doctor.
The article satirizes the marketing industries appeal to people’s desire to try new things
and to be one of the first people to initiate a popular trend before everyone else start following
the trend. They do this by emphasizing that the MagnaSoles are an exciting new product that
everyone wants to buy.
This article satirizes the use of testimonials from satisfied customers who believe the item
helped them even though there is no proof that the product actually caused the beneficial effect,
by relating the testimonial in which a woman used the shoe inserts to treat a sprained ankle for
seven weeks, ignoring the fact that a sprained ankle will heal in seven weeks even if nothing is
done.
This article also satirizes the advertising industries’ attempts to link their product to other
things that have respectability or at least some degree of familiarity. This article claims that the
effect of their product is “similar” to medicine, but offers no proof of any kind.
Satire
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This article also satirizes the frequent claim by people selling new objects that it’s based
on some ancient Oriental medical technique by claiming the effectiveness of the theory behind
the MagnaSoles have been studied in America and Europe (the Occident) for eleven years.
The satiric article makes liberal use of the terms “patented” and “TM” (trademarked) to
make it seem that the government has proven something about these items.