The Writing Career: A Case Study

In this article from The Onion it uses many rhetorical strategies and satire to show how products are marketed to consumers. In this article it makes up a fake story about “MagnaSoles” and gives all positive views and quotes to show the reader how products are marketed to consumers. In the article they use scientific tone, complex diction, and great syntax to show how products are marketed to consumers.

In this article released from The Onion the writer uses satirical strategies such as sarcasm, humor, and mockery to show how easily customers fall into the outrageous claims made by marketers.

In this fake advertisement about MagnaSoles, The Onion pokes fun at the techniques marketers use to sell their products. The author successfully satirizes how products are marketed to consumers through using the rhetorical devices of pretentious diction, hyperbole, and faulty logic.

Mrs. Seaver of Grove Press creates a much more convincing and persuasive argument through his compelling rebuttal of Mr. Herbert’s original letter. Although Mr. Herbert’s argument may seem logical in itself, Mr. Seaver mocks the argument and ultimately demonstrates the absurdity and triviality of the initial complaint. At the time the Coca-Cola representative wrote the initial letter, the company did not possess a patent declaring it had any legal rights to the slogan “It’s the Real Thing,” making the slogan fair game for Grove Press to exploit in its advertising. Mr. Seaver’s sarcastic tone, although much less professional than Mr. Herbert’s, also leaves a more lasting sway in the minds of readers. By exactly repeating certain convincing phrases and statements from the Coca-Cola letter, such as “dilute the distinctiveness” and “diminish the effectiveness,” and subsequently integrating them into his own argument, Mr. Seaver undermines their validity in the first

As a result, Seaver retaliates Herbert’s remarks by demonstrating how Grove Press’s use of the “It’s the Real Thing” slogan would not jeopardize any products. It would in fact be beneficial to the Coca Cola company in the sense that the consumer would recognize the slogan and feel compelled to go buy their product. His assertion shows how rather than being harmful, using the same slogans would be convenient to Coca Cola because the reader might “buy a Coke rather than a book.” (Para 3) Seaver counters Herbert’s argument by providing examples on how their slogan would not diminish or decrease the effectiveness of Coca Cola’s revenue. He then proceeds to assert “We [Grove Press] would be happy to give Coke the residual benefit of our advertising.” (Para 3)

The Onion continuously ridicules the marketing industry by sarcastically using actual techniques used daily in almost every commercial. The author changed key words in the article that would usually be the actual name of someone/ something that would get people to believe in the advertiser’s faked ethos. These examples are where the author says things

Anderson, shows how they use marketing tactics in “the feed.” “The feed” is an advanced form of the internet that is implanted into people’s head. Since marketing tactic is how an individual will view the content and not what the content is, “the feed” does that by showing what the individual might be interested by what the individual sees and feels but show in a way that they might be even more interested then before. In this book, Titus, the main character, was with his friends Quendy and Calista. Quendy was a model for Calista, so for the rest of the hour they were doing Quendy’s hair to showcase the lesions. Titus was thinking about Quendy and soon he realized that he wanted to be with Quendy than anything else. That is when an advertisement happened in his feed by making the product be in like a movie or show, which is what marketing tactics do, make contents falls into marketers tactics.

Nearly everybody has thought about writing as a career or a hobby, and it’s simple when you really put the time into it because these skills, like creativity are easy improving skills. Most successful journalists have great creativity and writing skills, especially in the current age when journalists are actually writing award-winning novels, like John Sandford, my father’s favorite author and more famously Mark Twain.

Commercials and ads showcase many products. They have one goal: to sell. This means that companies will do whatever they (legally) can to get customers. A The Onion article critiques how products are marketed to consumers falsely, with lies and deceit. To further explain, the author does this through the exaggeration of quotes from said “consumers,” as well as using providing sarcasm through the fake product “Magnasoles.”

Coming up with advertising ideas is not as easy as it might sound. Sometimes two or more companies might come up with the same slogan causing a conflict between them. That’s the case between the Coca-Cola Company and the Grove Press Incorporation. Both used the slogan “It’s the Real Thing” to describe their products and the Coca-Cola company was not in agreement with that. A company executive from the incorporation and a worker from the company, Ira Herbert, addressed this issue through a letter. Mr. Herbert, used a demanding tone, repetition, and pathos in order to get the Grove Press incorporation to stop using the slogan. On the other hand, Mr. Seaver, the person from the incorporation is the most persuasive due to the use of a serious direct tone, anecdotes, and sarcasm in order to explain to the Coca-Cola company that they have the right to use the slogan.

There are two items in this world that humans hate wasting. Time and Money. With two words, anyone can be drawn into a product, action, or idea. “Free Kittens” can mean more than just a new companion to adults. For some, it means three things; a cat, no money, and no waiting. In Roy Peter Clark’s book, How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times, he dedicates and entire chapter to slogans and sales. By analyzing what needs to be said, conveying that to customers, and constructing the output, Roy Peter Clark shows us that all slogans are works of short writing. Slogans speak for the product where the company cannot. No matter the media it appears from, it has a lasting impression on everyone.

In 2009, America was pulling out of the second “Great” depression. The market crashed and the money burned. In the midst of all the havoc, the world found peace in creativity and music, and the arts flourished. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of best selling book Eat, Pray, Love gave her speech, “Your Elusive Creative Genius”, at the annual 2009 TED conference in Long Beach, California, to encourage reflection upon the times. Gilbert is known for her humor in her written memoirs, novels, and speeches. In Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2009 TED speech, “Your Elusive Creative Genius”, she uses rhetorical devices including: tone, metaphors, and allusion to take a humorous approach to bring light to the darkness of writing and encourage writers to never give up on their own writing.

White made several points covered by other speakers about how to approach the sale pitch, but drove through it by a different path. By approaching it from the point of telling a story, he was able to reframe the situation into a manageable narrative from which just about anybody could find a starting point. Beginning with the structure he mentioned, using Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Story”, and laying out how this is used in popular media, it became clear that this was a proven process for storytelling. In showing real-time examples of how this plays out in a commercial, Tom was able to basically hand the class a blueprint from which any one of us could put together a sales

Cliff Freeman said that people would kill anything that they thought of before they had the chance because they got nervous. Lee Clow goes on to say that those business professionals have no creativity, trust, or bravery when letting them, the advertisers, develop an idea.These people have conquered the skill of persuasion and have mastered how to make the audience feel a connection to their brand. Their creativity and knowledge helped me better my understanding of the advertising world.

“Surrogate advertising is a reflection of the hypocritical society that we live in. We consider some products good enough to be sold but not good enough to be advertised. A marketer has to sell his product, and will find means to promote it. I don't blame him.”