Fallacy Summary and Application
Fallacies are used in many applications of business. Companies use them to push products, spin dropping profits, and to prevent losses in customer base. Politicians use fallacies constantly to attack opponents and to change to subject when pressure is put on them for things they have done in the past. This paper will discuss three different types of fallacies and how companies and individuals use amphiboly, false analogy, and ad hominem to sell their product or opinions.
Amphiboly is a fallacy that uses vague statements to cause people to draw the wrong conclusions. Claritin is an antihistamine used for allergy relief. Before August of 1997, the Claritin commercials showed a woman running through a field with an announcer stating "At last a clear day" and "Its time to see your doctor". Not once was the benefit or the hazards of the drug mentioned. People would then think, "I would like to have a clear day. I should call my doctor". This was causing people to call their doctors to ask if they needed Claritin or one of the other drugs to have a clear day. The reasons the pharmaceutical companies did this was because before 1997 an ad could be made with the drugs name but as long as the benefits were not mentioned the side effects did not have to be mentioned either. Fortunately, in 1997 the FDA changed the law.
Sometimes companies use false analogies to fool people into thinking that what they are buying is better or something altogether different then what they are purchasing. Not all false analogies are spoken; some false analogies can be used through animation or art. In WWII Saab built aircraft for the war effort and after the war their plans were not in demand so they crossed over to automobiles. In Saab's latest commercials there is a car driving down an isolated strip of land when a group of fighter jets fly over head at low altitude. The announcer then proclaims, "When you used to build fighter jets, you don't build just another car". At no point does the commercial state any facts of how the car differs from other cars. It relies on the viewer to associate the planes with the car and deduce that since the company built high performance aircraft it can build a high performance car. While the fact the engineers were able to input there knowledge of aircraft design into automobiles is encouraging, it in no way gives them the right to claim their cars are better because of it.
The focus of the camera in the flashback to 1994 shows us that it is an actual shot from the 1990’s due to the poor quality of the image. The characters are also sitting in the same relative order in the car as they were in the set of the show. This similarity is on purpose. The television show seating arrangement is recreated in the car and is paired with similar dialogue to compare the two situations and realize that they are very similar. The use of focus here is much like the use of dialogue. The first shot of the car is when the car is coming to a stop at the stoplight. We get a quick view of the sleek black and white exterior. The only other time that we get to see the outside of the car is after the dialogue has finished and the light at the stoplight turns from red to green, and they proceed to drive away. The colors of the written text in the commercial match the colors of the car. The colors are crisp and inverse of each other, making them jut out. Besides the text and the car matching, the colors also match the color of the companies logo. These colors are carefully chosen to make the car look sleek, elegant and pleasing to the
Other commercials, according to Solomon, thrive on fitting in. The Chevrolet commercials have a slogan that makes one feel to be American, one must by American. Chevrolet's slogan is 'The Heartbeat of America.'; Car commercials also have targeted markets also. For a truck commercial, they will show a truck getting all dirty and going through an obstacle. This is targeted towards men because most men find these things appealing. For a luxury car commercial the mood or the commercial is nice and pleasant, the car is on a country road (representing one driving to there country home). These cars were once targeted towards upper class people, but now they are targeted towards everyone according to Solomon. A commercial strives on the ever so enduring drive for Americans to have better things and climb up the social status ladder. Marketers know this, so they place normal, average, everyday looking people in their commercials to let middle class people know that they can have the car, too.
Often Advertising uses persuasion to inform the audience; in fact it is the most import aspect to advertising. Advertising would simply be a conversation between the communicator and their recipients if persuasion weren’t present. Although the basic purposes are to inform and persuade, it is left to the audience when it comes to differentiating between factual information and unethical persuasive tactics. The persuader, wishes for the consumer to act or believe in a certain way. Whether sought after actions are positive or negative, ends up being the question. In the modern world it has become more difficult to differentiate between truths and untruths; mainly due to the technological advances in advertising medium. Differentiating between facts and propaganda becomes increasingly more challenging when it comes to politics. Whether it is an election for student senate or the United States general election for Presidency; there are a lot of factors weighing in on the decision process. During an election year, persuasive tactics become essential in the success of a campaign. Although many voters have made up their minds when they are first bombarded by the political campaigning, these pre-developed opinions are not viewed as an impenetrable force by the campaigner. The campaigner typically recognizes these patterns in opinion and instead aims to persuade them from a different angle, most commonly the emotions surrounding the issues rather than the issues themselves. This paradigm changed in political persuasion was first seen September 7, 1964 when a rattling ad for Lynden Johnson played over NBC. The ad now known as “Daisy Girl” forever changed political persuasion in advertising. With this change came the issue of ethi...
It is very common among the United States’ political sphere to rely heavily on T.V. commercials during election season; this is after all the most effective way to spread a message to millions of voters in order to gain their support. The presidential election of 2008 was not the exception; candidates and interest groups spent 2.6 billion dollars on advertising that year from which 2 billion were used exclusively for broadcast television (Seelye 2008.) Although the effectiveness of these advertisements is relatively small compared to the money spent on them (Liasson 2012), it is important for American voters to think critically about the information and arguments presented by these ads. An analysis of the rhetoric in four of the political campaign commercials of the 2008 presidential election reveals the different informal fallacies utilized to gain support for one of the candidates or misguide the public about the opposing candidate.
A straw man fallacy, in its most lucid form, is executed when a person not only disregards an opponent’s counterarguments, but also distorts them into exaggerated versions of themselves in the interest of making them easier to refute. In many cases, the adversary’s arguments are skewed to such a severe point that they wind up being completely different than what the adversaries were actually fighting for; however, this is all for the convenience of the proponent. An innumerable amount of politicians and authors are infamous for using this problematic method of disproving opposing arguments, even notable celebrities like George W. Bush. The straw man method of persuasion is a proficient way to make a personal stance sound factual, but it
...ife magazine from 1951, the advertisement for general motors shows a bunch of cars in what appears to be a wealthy town, and says that the general motor is the key to a richer life. Another advertisement from 1951, pictures a red shiny car with a woman in the background who seems to be wealthy based on her clothes, and at the bottom, it says that a beautiful dream can come true. What the car advertisements are saying about class is that the wealthy are the ones that own these enjoyable materialistic objects, because no where in the advertisements are there people who appear to be poor; the advertisements only include people who seem to be wealthy or at least middle class. The advertisements are trying to express, that by owning one of these cars it can give one status and power. Fundamentally, the companies are trying to sell the lifestyle that the car can give.
We see cars in our everyday lives, as transportation and sometimes even toys and model cars. So what else are they used for? Advertising is a big thing that cars do; for instance NASCAR FANS can see the most advertising just by flicking the tv on and watching what they like to see. They have different sponsors that they represent as advertising(Automotive History). Without your name being on a business card it can be broadcasted on a car that thousands of people can see as you drive by. It also made the market for different items much more competitive. For instance, going back to NASCAR, Jimmy Johnson represents Lowes and Joey Lagano represents the Home Depot. Therefore, if a customer were to like lowes better than The Home Depot the may like the driver Jimmy Johnson more. The Automobile shaped the cities we live in today, by the roads that surround the suburbs, and only some had to take the train or ride a bike, while others were able to just hope in their car and go where ever they please. When the car first appeared to the middle class public, it was a big deal because it was not just an upper class...
1.) Rank’s easy-to-use, analytical tool is called the intensify/downplay model, and its goal is to help you to become more critical and analytical receivers. It defines and gives examples of four major persuasive strategies and six associated tactics that are often used by persuaders today. (Larson, 2007 page 31) Ranks major strategy is to either intensify certain aspects of the product, cause or candidate. His other strategy is to downplay certain aspects of their brand, cause or candidate. (Larson, 2007 page 31) The intensification and downplay strategies include, to intensify their own good points, intensify the weak points of the opposition, downplay their own weak points, and downplay the good points of the opposition. The tactics that most persuaders use for intensification are repetition, association, and composition to intensify their own good points. Rank’s downplay tactics include omission, diversion and confusion. “Any of these tactics can be used logically or emotionally.” (Larson, 2007 pg. 31) For example commercials today don’t show the hidden meaning and try to persuad...
Another fallacy seen all the time in advertising is appeal to authority. “Appeal to authority is committed when an arguer cites a witness or an authority who, there is good reason to believe, is unreliable” (Bassham et al., 2002, p. 162). Donald Trump endorses McDonalds, while Shaq endorses Burger King. Sure Donald Trump may be an expert in business, and Shaq may be an expert at basketball, but are either one of them an expert on fast food? Why should we buy products just because sports stars and famous people tell us to? Appeal to authority can also happen when the authority is an actual expert on the subject, but is bias toward one side of the issue. For example, a doctor makes a commercial supporting a new herbal supplement designed to help people lose weight. Then you find out the doctor works for the company selling the herbal supplement.
A fallacy is defined as a failure in reasoning that renders an argument invalid, faulty reasoning, or a misleading or unsound argument. There are many kinds of fallacies and even websites devoted to describing the various kinds of logical fallacies. Fallacies, though, are slippery little fiends, which do not hesitate to creep in even where they are unwanted. No one wants their argument proved false, but careful, critical readers can spot these shifty deceivers. On the website of the Center for American Progress, there is an article – authored by Catherine Brown and Ulrich Boser – called “The DeVos Family Dynasty.” This article is a poor example of persuasive communication because there are many cases of ad hominem fallacy, the authors repeatedly
First example is several of the presidential candidate Donald Trump where he oversimplify an opponent point of view then attacks that weak hollow argument that he created. Another example, which happens a lot on many different levels, when someone generalize a characteristic for a whole group of people, racially or religiously, in simpler words “stereo typing”, which as matter of fact another fallacy that our fierce presidential candidate Donald Trump commits on regular basis. A fallacy that we experience on daily basis is “everyone is doing this and that’s why I do the same” that’s a very common fallacy that we don’t only experience we usually are the abusers too. A final example to illustrate more on fallacies is not getting to the point in a discussion or avoiding the point by changing the
Ad hominem is an attack on the character of a person rather than their opinions or arguments. There are many examples that have been given in the recent years of President Obama’s administration. A generalized example would be: “President Obama’s strategies aren’t effective because he is a Socialist.” In this example, there are actually two types of fallacies: Ad hominem and ecological. It is first and foremost an attack on the President’s character, however, it attempts to group him with Socialists. The statement does not describe the President’s strategies, only that they are ineffective. There is no truth behind the statement, nor does it possess physical
The girl in the commercial backs this idea up by saying, “We knew that being clever was more important than being the biggest kid in the neighborhood.” To me this meant that to Maserati being the best car was more important than being the biggest. Maserati often competes with a lot of other high end car dealers such as Mercedes, Porsche, and Jaguar, which is why the commercial was even made; to offer a new, improved product to compete with. Other car companies have smaller four door vehicles. For example, Porsche has the Panamera. Maserati came out with the Ghibi in 2014 to keep up with its competitors, and this commercial helped sell the
As we know fallacies are used very often in our lives. Ad Hominem fallacy is not an exception. Lately, in Democrat's governor nominee election, I noticed an Ad Hominem fallacy happened between Phil Angelides and Steve Westley. They used each other personal life and their investments against each other instead of proving each other wrong by scientific proofs. The environment was the subject of many exchanges TV ads between them.
The defendant is an Airlines Company that had 900 employees. The economic crisis followed with monetary crisis gave bad effects to the defendant. They should decrease the number of their airplanes form 9 to 2 airplanes. They also had to do the efficiency on their employees to 700. On the efficiency process, there was an agreement between the defendant and employees representation on October 30 1998. The agreement stated that they would bring Independent Public Accountant to analyze company financial condition. During the process, all side should work on their duty. The Defendant should pay employees’ wage. The agreement was not guarantee that didn’t mean the dispute process was over, but the negotiation still moved on. During the process, there was another agreement between the defendant and several employees. They agreed the finish the disputed process and the employees would get separation pay. Meanwhile, other employees, who were 153 people didn’t agree with that agreement. Because they didn’t agree each other, so the employees gave the case to the “Panitia Penyelesaian Perselisihan Perburuhan Pusat (P4P)”.