Onion Article Analysis

 

    

The Onion article “American Express Launches Small Sweatshop Saturday”, creates a parody of a news promo of a “charity campaign” that American Express is running. It focuses on a supposed interview with American Express CEO Stephen Squeri, he talks about how sweatshops are the “key to boosting economic growth” and how he “feels great” supporting  “a local employer”. This brings a tone of irony to the piece, with the reader hearing an argument remise of the rhetoric that corporations use to prove their supposed charitable nature. Linking sweatshops to economic growth shows the sacrifice that much of the privilege we enjoy in Western societies from our highly evolved market economies is built on the exploitation of others. Similarly, there’s a theme of situational irony in this quote, where he feels better about himself for supporting an exploitative cycle of labor, focused on overworking people as if they’re expendable. 

Later in the article when the Onion mentions that American Expressed pledged “$1 to install a single flickering fluorescent light” for every sweatshop purchase made using American Express. This mocks the performative nature of corporate philanthropy, revealing how these efforts work more to improve consumer appearances than any genuine change. A drop in the bucket, compared to the overflow of wealth and affluence the CEO experiences. The description of the “flickering fluorescent light” and “windowless workplace” furthers the description of the abuse of workers in sweatshops particularly “immigrant workers” who have nowhere else to work. They’re instead sidelined, with only a “fraction of the minimum wage” being doled out to them.