Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for Big Tobacco companies uses rhetoric to persuade his audience that smoking is not as unsafe as perceived by the society, by shifting its dangers to unimportant issues. As the lead campaigner for Big Tobacco Companies, he is hired to create a positive image of tobacco thereby maximizing profit for these companies. In the movie “Thank you for smoking,” Naylor employs various fallacies to demonstrate how arguments can distract an audience from their original values, beliefs and concerns.
A common fallacy used by Mr. Naylor in the movie is the red herring fallacy. Here, the debater deliberately throws a discussion off course and create a different vision of the original topic. While speaking at the senatorial subcommittee hearing, Naylor argues that people should not be influenced by poison signs on cigarettes; instead; they should be responsible for making their own choices and educating themselves on the dangers of the product, rather than using a warning label for something people consider to be potentially dangerous. To buttress his point at the Congress Meeting, he says, “Gentlemen, it's called education. It doesn't come off the side of a cigarette carton. It comes from our teachers, and more importantly our parents. It is the job of every parent to warn their children of all the dangers of the world, including cigarettes, so that one day when they get older they can choose for themselves.” .He tactically shifts the issue from the dangers of smoking, addiction, and health to that of education which is one of the core values of the American people .Not only does Naylor shift the issue of smoking to that of education, he also shifts issues again from smoking to freedom. Naylor says that it is peopl...
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... polishing fallacy to appeal to the vanity of his audience. While on the Jenny Joan Talk Show he referred to the audience as the “fine concerned people.”Mr. Nick is aware of the effect of commendations and compliments and uses this as a yard stick to appeal to the emotions of the audience by applying this skill for his personal victory against his opponent.
Throughout the movie, rhetorical strategies was used to distract, persuade or inform the audience about smoking and anti-smoking issues. Different characters in the movie practically use various fallacious reasoning to mislead their targets and disprove their opponents, however, the fallacies used by Mr. Naylor were intentionally used with ease. it is imperative to applaud Mr. Naylor for being a noble lobbyist. He truly deserves the title "The Sultan of Spin.” as expressed by his son Joey Naylor.
As our unnamed heroine slumps through afternoon traffic, exhausted and crestfallen from another arduous day of swilling diet coke by the pallid light of a word processor, she turns on the car radio to find a pertinent message being broadcasted.
The smoking issue is very complicated and some of the arguments are beyond the scope of this essay. Still, we can obtain a balanced outlook if we consider the following: the facts of smoking, individual right, societal responsibility, and the stigma of smoking. Haviland and King write essays which contain very important points, but seem to contain a bias which may alienate some people. To truly reach a consensus on the smoking issue, we must be willing to meet each other halfway. We must strike equilibrium between individual right and societal responsibility.
Reginald’s Roses purpose in writing Twelve Angry Men is to point out that justice can be oblivious unless someone or something acts upon it because in some cases, we are over powered by our biases or by individuality and/or conformity that we don’t focus on the facts, or we don’t even bother caring about sending someone to the death penalty because all we want is to rest.
Tobacco companies should be prevented from using advertising tactics that target teenagers. There has always been controversy as to how tobacco companies should prevent using advertising tactics to target teenagers. As controversial as this is tobacco companies shouldn’t advertise teen smoking. Many teens may be lured to believe cigarette advertising because it has been part of the American Culture for years, magazine ads and the media target young people, and these companies receive a drastic increase financially; however, the advertising by these cigarette companies has disadvantages such as having to campaign against their own company, limiting their cigarette advertising and becoming a controversial dilemma as to encouraging teenagers to smoke. From billboards to newspaper advertisements, cigarette promotions started becoming part of the American Culture.
Tobacco companies have relied on the media to lure children. They quickly realized that ‘the company that dominates is that which most effectively targets young”(Imperial Tobacco document.) To counteract the idea of disease and other negative aspects of tobacco, the industry used imagery in the media such as natural settings and healthy actors doing active things. This helps them to insinuate that smoking leads to success, romance, sophistication and other advancements in their lifestyle, which was easily imprinted in the minds of children. A document found among Imperial tobacco files described their priority: “…having our imagery reach those non-reading young people who frequent malls should be our chief goal.”(1.170) Unaware of how important the under 18 market was to the industry, the government could only attempt to lengthen the distance between schools and billboards because they’re ineffective attempts were ignored by the large corporations. With many billboards concentrated in small areas it put the idea in children’s minds that smoking was socially acceptable and that t...
The campaign Truth focuses on giving facts, truths and statistics to its viewers to become educated on the topic of tobacco. Underneath the large text from above, the second fact states that “90% of them started as teen smokers.” Many adults that have become addicted to smoking cigarettes began the habit as teens. There are many people that believe smokers are not good people and that they are going to be ill. That is what the artist of this picture is portraying. Truth’s most recent campaign, ‘Finish It’, has a strong theme: “be the generation that ends smoking for good.” This has been presented and shown through social media and popular television shows. Through the exposure of the deathly, and eye opening facts through social media, it has been a great impact to teenagers. On Truth’s website they state that “We’re not here to criticize your choices, or tell you not to smoke. We’re here to arm everyone—smokers and nonsmokers—the the tools to make it change” (thetruth.com). Many other anti—smoking campaigns shame and make smokers feel guilty but Truth is mainly about exposing the facts and making people more knowledgeable about tobacco.
... of their industries, drugs alcahol or tobacco, contribute to more deaths in america each year. Naylor claims that "my product puts away 475 000 a year" and he takes great pleasure in that the level of alcohol related deaths is tiny in comparison "100 000 in a year? Wowee... a tragedy. Excuse me if I don’t exactly see terrorists getting excited kidnapping anyone from the alcohol industry". The emotionless facial alongside the close up shots of Naylor comparing the terrorist related deaths to alcohol related deaths highlights his lack of care towards human life. This is seen by the fast transition of shots between the two during the conversation, adding to the competetiveness of the argument. The foolish attitude of Naylor, ultimately representing the tobacco industry, outlines the satire nature of the scene which demonstrates the received lack of moral concern.
Some people dream of wealth, happiness, or genius, but is any of that easily attainable? An intellectual young man from the movie Good Will Hunting has an unusually high IQ that is shrouded by emotional problems. Will Hunting is arrested after yet another case of physical assault in Boston, and this time it was a police officer. When he is arrested, his genius is discovered by a college professor, Gerald Lambeau, who sees potential in Will despite his flaws. Instead of jail time, Labeau offers him a fair bargain. As long as Will attends mandatory therapy, he will be allowed to work alongside the professor. But education isn’t everything, because under Wills sarcastic wit and mathematical genius, he hides his true self. Will scares off five different therapists before he finds himself stuck with Sean Maguire, who ends up using personal and profound forms of therapy to crack Wills shell. Sean delivers this speech to help Will realize his ignorance of his insecurities and other people by using ethos, logos, and pathos appeals; Sean addresses that true knowledge and perspective can only
Thank you for smoking, it’s what big companies like Marlboro and Camel want to let us know, and keep smoking. Tobacco has been around for thousand of years, but today’s cigarettes contain many harmful and poisonous toxins. Yet, its simple: Tobacco smoking kills, reduces economic productivity, and strengthens poverty. But lets be frank, everyone’s aware of these issues already, everyone’s out to get cigarette companies; however, there’s a bigger problem. What happens when cigarette companies target today’s children?
The film Thank You for Smoking is an obscure jesting that follows a petitioner, Nick Naylor, for the tobacco industry. Murky comedies take a grave topic, and make light of the topic through mockery. Worthy example of rhetoric can be found in Thank You for Smoking during a scene where Nick Naylor delivers an argument against putting a skull and crossbones label on every pack of cigarettes. Senator Finistirre does this during a hearing in front of a congressional committee lead from Vermont. Naylor’s audience is the committee and members of the audience including his young son. Naylor is defending a controversial idea with controversial evidence and support, whether it goes against what he believes or not. Naylor’s own morality is called into question. Logos, pathos, Kairos, and ethos, the mainstays of rhetoric, can all be found throughout Naylor’s defense. Rhetorical fallacies can also be found throughout the sequence.
Role-Playing was used to strengthen commitment to non-smoking by public declaration and therepeated dialogue stimulated counterarguements. To truly understand the effectsof
Eleven years down the road that kid is either in college or working, and is offered a cigarette. His mother had always told him that smoking was bad for a person’s health but she also told him that the tooth fairy was real. The first thing that will run through his mind is that advertisement he saw at the bus stop one day that had stuck with him all these years. I can almost guarantee that he will turn the cigarette down. He most likely will flash back to the moment when he saw the cigarette with the gun as the shadow, and want nothing to do with smoking. Advertisements, especially one as dramatic as this can really turn a person on or off of something permanently. In the big picture, this could help change the thought that smoking is a social norm and “cool”, but rather a habit that only makes the sand run faster through the hour glass of life. Even if it only helped a handful of people, isn’t that enough to call it a success? Because when those people grow up and tell their children and grandchildren what the effects of smoking are, it will be passed from generation to generation. This could result in a rapid decline of smokers and a more healthy world we live
In the film Thank you for smoking, Nick Naylor- the main character of the film employs rhetorical devices such as re-framing, hyperbole and numerous logical fallacies to win his argument
Thank you for smoking is a satirical comedy about a lobbyist whose job is to promote tobacco use at a time when the disease burden secondary to smoking threatens to cripple the nation. The film presents how industries, media and the government interact to influence the consumers’ decision. While the use of rhetoric, such as fallacies and twisted truths, is evident throughout the film, it is most evident midway when the chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, assists his son with his assignment. The son, Joey Naylor, enquires why the American government is the best and in response, the father argues it is because of America’s ‘endless appeals system’ (Thank you for smoking). His response seamlessly captures the tone of the movie as much as it represents the extensive use of a combination of fallacious arguments and twisted truths. This essay attempts to analyse the use of fallacies and twisted truths to appeal to the emotion of the
One way that the tobacco industry can be more ethical is changing their advertising strategy. I believe that today’s advertising strategy is very misleading about cigarettes. Examples of this unethical advertising is in Argentina, here 20 percent of television advertising is spent on smoking commercials, as well as in countries in and around Africa there are billboards that depict a man in a business suit stepping out of a black Mercedes as a chauffeur holds the door. This displays that cigarettes make people classy and sophisticated, making cigarettes look not only harmless but stylish. Another good example of unethical depiction on cigarettes is in Nigeria; here they promote a cigarette for graduates, with a picture of a university and a student in a cap and gown. As if this wasn’t a misleading visual they add a slogan that says, "A very important cigarette for very important people." These ads and slogan are ...