2nd Period

Seaver’s Satirical Letter: Analytical

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Richard Seaver's letter responding to Herbert's letter is satirical because of the high use of irony
and cynicism by Seaver to rebut Herbert’s arguments for the use of the Coca Cola slogan. In using irony
and cynicism, Seaver mocks Coca Cola through being blatantly insincere, especially in response to
Herbert’s most silly arguments, including where he mocks the chance that a person might “mistake a
book by a Harlem schoolteacher for a six-pack of Coca-Cola” to show how absurd an actual confusion of
the slogan would affect sales. In addition, Seaver uses the same formality of as Herbert used in his letter,
but often taking his words to literal extremes, especially with the diction Seaver uses when he mockingly
addresses his delight in using the slogan for Coca-Cola’s “residual benefit”. Thus, Seaver mocks Coca
Cola in response to Coca Cola’s willful ignorance of the effects of the apparent reuse of Coca Cola’s
slogan by Grove Press.