Fallacies : A Logical Fallacy

A fallacy, by definition, is an argument that uses poor reasoning. Before one uses a fallacy, it’s important to have full understanding or else you risk losing your whole ethos aspect of your argument. Heinrichs gives three important parts to detecting fallacies. “All you have to do is look for a bad proof, the wrong number of choices, or a disconnect between the proof and the conclusion.” (Heinrichs 146)

Advertising appeals to emotions, rather than reason. Most ads try to attract your interest or stimulate your desire by either scaring you into doing something or appeal to your emotions by tying a product to your “happiness or well-being”. Successful ads also use compelling visuals to entice the audience into action. Many also use celebrities because research shows we are more likely to associate truthfulness with a known celebrity figure.

Approaching advertising in a different light would be emotionally. In America, advertising can be described as hard selling. Hard selling is a campaign or advertisement that is direct, forceful and straight to the point. For example while watching an American seatbelt warning on Youtube, the commercial is simply based on the motto, “Click it or Ticket”, showing average people driving their cars and getting pulled over by officers and receiving a ticket and fine. The commercial is to the point and straight forward, showing almost no emotion. The approach that American marketing companies have used is effective by saying ‘If you don’t’ wear your seatbelt, then you will be forced by law to pay a fine’.

Rhetorical fallacies are “errors and manipulation of rhetoric and logical thinking,” as defined by informationisbeautiful.net. Rhetorical fallacies such as affirming the consequent, appeal to pity, and undistributed middle, can be seen in any type of debate, or conversation. Rhetorical fallacies are very apparent in politic related public speaking, as I have observed. This paper will examine three videos from the Meet the Press series and the rhetorical fallacies I identified in these three videos.

I truly can relate to you, last week it was challenging trying to gather all the information without getting caught in any fallacies. I had to change my last two subtopics sentences and then do some serious reading. It was challenging and a learning experience, It works better for me to read as much as I can and then out of that come up with my thesis statement, then come up with the thesis statement and then look for information based on that. I feel that I am alert now when listening to a speech or just watching T.V. when it comes to identify any fallacies present, listening to others help me realize how wrong it sounds to use fallacies and how often they are

Advertisements come in various shapes, sizes, and mediums, and as humans, we are constantly surrounded by them. Whether they are on TV, radio, or in a magazine, there is no way that we can escape them. They all have their target audience for whom the advertisers have specifically designed the ad. When a company produces a commercial, their main objective is to get their product to sell. This is a multibillion-dollar industry and the advertisers study all the ways that they can attract their audience’s attention. The producers of advertisements have many tactics and strategies they use when producing an ad to get consumers to buy their product. These include things such as rhetorical

Society is often built on lies which allows for the people within it to become accustomed to them. Rhetorical fallacies are now an integral part of persuasion in the world. They allow themselves to continue to affect the listener long after their delivery. In the event of these three speeches, the speakers used multiple fallacies to continually captivate the audience. While a valuable resource, if overused they may become the downfall of a message.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump, has used rhetorical fallacious tactics, to persuade his audience into voting for him. Fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener, or take advantage of social relationships between people.

An example of an ad that tries to convince it's viewers to buy something would be a Tide commercial. During this ad, a Superbowl announcer gets barbecue sauce on his shirt. Then he rushes to someone's house in a golf cart. On his way to the house, many people took pictures of his dirty shirt and put it on social media. When the announcer is getting his shirt cleaned they use Tide soap and watch television. Then the announcer continues to go

In “Propaganda Techniques in Today 's Advertising” by Ann McClintock, the author discusses how Americans are being brainwashed by advertisements and the different techniques they use to catch our attention. Ads are simply everywhere we look, it is impossible to get through the day without seeing one. All advertising companies put tons of research into how consumers spend money or even vote. Once these companies finish their research, they create advertisements that appeal to the masses. The basic propaganda techniques that McClintock writes about are Name Calling, Glittering Generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain Folks, Card Stacking, and Bandwagon. Each one of these propaganda techniques is used in specific ways by advertisers to sell their product or service to consumers. I have selected a political ad which uses the Glittering Generalities technique, a coffee ad that uses Transfer technique, a soda ad that uses the Testimonial technique, and a soup ad that uses the Name Calling technique.

Religious and non-religious people are not quite different as people may think, as they both are on their own path of figuring out what life is all about and what is their purpose in life. Often, believers and non-believers of Christ are seen bumping heads in disagreement and some may take it to the extreme with their arguments, to the point where their arguments are not credible nor logical. Bill Maher, an American comedian, political commentator, and television host, even made his own comedy documentary called Religulous, examining and challenging religion and religious belief. He argues how religion is ridiculous, as it said in the title of the documentary, while traveling the world in search for religious people’s take on why they are religious.

Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience to continue or take some new action. But when advertisers produce an ad, they have many different variables that come into play if they want to successfully persuade consumers. The first most important step they have to figure out is, what type of audience they are trying to target. They then create images and intend to appeal specifically to the values, hopes, and desires of that particular audience. This is why someone would rather pick the well-known Malboro cowboy ads over the new female cigarettes of Virginia Slims. Each of these ads targets a specific audience;

Have you ever wondered if something is actually making you genuinely laugh or if it is just always laughed at so you feel like you must laugh at at? Sometimes people are so accustomed to the things around them that they are just going through the motions. Now fallacies are common errors within reasoning that will ruin the logic of your argument. They can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim. Have you ever jumped on the band wagon about something? Whether it be sports, an argument, or even bickering with a loved one. You side with someone even though you may not have all of the knowledge you should have befor putting up a fight.

According to Bassham et al. (2002), a logical fallacy is “an argument that contains a mistake in reasoning” (p. 140). There are two types of logical fallacies, fallacies of relevance, and fallacies of insufficient evidence. Fallacies of relevance happen when the premises are not logically relevant to the conclusion. Fallacies of insufficient evidence occur when the premises do not provide sufficient evidence to support the conclusion. Though there are several logical fallacies, four logical fallacies commonly found in advertising are amphiboly, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, and non sequitur.

Our lives revolve around money. The value of a dollar does not buy much anymore; everything comes with a price tag. The media likes to entice people with catchy slogans, celebrities or any other setup just so they can obtain our money. Once they grasp our attention we realize most of these attention grabbers had no relation to their argument or what they are trying to sell. Thus the correct term for the types of misleading ads and television commercials is called informal fallacies. The purpose of an informal fallacy can be to enact reactions from the audience, used to discredit a person or lastly appeal to a certain outlook. They mainly lack the validity in order to prove their argument. The media provides us with many scenarios using different forms of informal fallacies. I will provide three notable examples of informal fallacies by explaining the type of fallacy and why the media used this fallacy.