This pokes fun at modern advertising’s attempts to dazzle customers with fancy words that have no real meaning, known as glittering generalities. The article continues with a quote from “biotrician” Dr. Wayne Frankel, “MagnaSoles convert the wearer’s own energy to match the Earth’s natural vibrational rate of 32.805 kilofrankels.” His title as a “biotrician” and use of his self-coined term “kilofrankels” are both satire. Both poke fun at the arrogance of scientifically “impressive” sounding testimonials in advertisements. This scientist is so legitimate that he has his own unit named after him! Towards the end of the article, there are two more testimonials for the MagnaSoles shoe inserts.
It’s a nightmare just to try and figure out how this cold and flu medicine is any better than anything else in the market. The advertisers put all these catchy phrases and meaningless words to make the consumer think they are getting a quality product. These words are called “weasel words “writes William Lutz, an English instructor and author of Double Speak.”” Advertisers use weasel words to appear to be making a claim for a product when in fact they are making no claim at all. Weasel words get their name from the way weasels eat the eggs they find in nests of other animals .A weasel will make a small hole in the egg suck out the insides then place the egg back in the nest. Only when the is examined closely is it found to be hollow.
These are ads that say something like “lasts up two twice as long”. The buyer has no idea what it is twice as long as. The frequently used word “like” is a word that ignores the product and concentrates on the claim the ad is making it about. For example “for skin like peaches and cream”, makes the buyer believe that, even though it is impossible, their skin will be very soft such as peaches and cream. Such “weasel words” explained in this article show how advertisements easily persuade people to buy their products.
By substituting images for claims, the pictorial commercial made emotional appeal, not tests of truth, the basis of consumer decisions.” (Pg. 127-128), Postman is showing that by only appealing to our base emotions, we aren’t required to think as much as when presented with fact. Because our culture has accepted this new attitude, Neil believes that our society has become worse. He uses the hyperbole as a sort of attention getter; to make a reader ask himself if the title can actually come true. Logos is used throughout the book and is mainly found in Postman’s quotes and examples.
A wise man once said, "Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception." In a generation where advertisements play a big role in persuading consumers to buy, deception has become something businesses abuse in order to receive money. The mock press release from The Onion uses humor and satire in order to illustrate how businesses abuse deception in advertisements. Throughout the whole article, The Onion mocks the diction and tone that real advertisements use. The article first shows that through "no fewer than five forms of pseudoscience," the Magna Soles will "stimulate and soothe the wearer's feet".
The omnipresent issue of childhood obesity was always tentative ground for the politicians, but the reigniting of the topic via the new move by the government to restrict and/or limit the sales of “junk food”, and rumors are circulating that the government will monitor the weight of children in the country. “Parent ban may be useful” by Geoff McLean’s letter to the editor; argued that the advertising saturation levels are not technically the major problem, but that the real problem lied with the parents. McLean’s uses an exasperated tone in his letter; this fully comes into play in the last two paragraphs, “instead farming them out to childcare centers or using television or video game as a de-facto
Bradley calls this sneaky strategy “Leanwashing” which is the practice of making a product or service appear healthier that it is through advertising or other forms marketing. In the second paragraph of the blog post Bradley compares Big Food’s use of leanwashing to a snake oil salesman, “Big Food increasingly acts more and more like a snake oil salesman, shilling sugary, salt-laden, fatty processed foods and calling them healthy.” By comparing Big Food to a snake oil salesman, Bradley creates an image of the most unscrupulous salesman pushing false claims about a product and duping everyone in earshot in the mind of the reader. This image created by Bradley effectively undercuts the credibility of Big Food by saying their health claims are just plain fraudulent. In the next paragraph Bradley moves to the advertising and PR agency EnviroMedia which has created and launched the Leanwashing Index. This index judges a food ad, package, or promotion on five different criteria, 1.
It’s geeks, or more intelligent students, being called “brainy” or “nerds” and harassed by classmates. It’s science being seen as a waste of time and money. It’s a political candidate winning an election because he successfully depicted his opponent as an “egghead”. Incidentally, it’s likely that one of the reasons America currently has one of its worst presidents ever is that, by being less educated and articulate than Gore or Kerry, he appeared “more in touch” with the common man (of course, one should then wonder if you really want the village idiot in charge of the most powerful nation in the world… but I digress.) There are several sources of anti-intellectualism.
Fake Beauty The price of beauty is more than what is thought. Alan Ball’s American Beauty shows characters that are miserable because they are hiding their emotions and pretending to be happy. Dave Barry’s “The Ugly Truth about Beauty” tells how society focuses too much on appearance. These problems are caused by being false, keeping secrets and society’s superficiality. Both the film and article shows that there is so much beauty in this world, but people sometimes fail to look beyond appearances and see what really matters.
He then went on to argue that sport is already economically unfair and poorer nations are disadvantaged. Olivier also indicated that he felt that the £300 million spent on drug testing at the Olympics could have been better spent. He concluded by saying that most of us applaud musicians who produce their best work whilst under the influence of drugs which shows hypocrisy as we single out and punish athletes for the same behaviour. Tim Chappell fought his corner by not referring to any of the points made by Olivier, but starting by saying that 'sport is glorious.' He explained with the point with the idea that sport is about creating extraordinary moments and drug taking would simply be cheating.