Common Fallacies in
Advertising
Ad Hominem, Appeal to Emotions, False
Dilemma, Appeal to the People, Scare
Tactic, False Cause, Hasty Generalization,
Red Herring, and Traditional Wisdom
What is a Fallacy?
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According to Webster’s Dictionary, a
fallacy is an error in reasoning or a
flawed argument.
It’s an argument that does not
conform to the rules of logic, but
appears to be sound.
Prevalence of Fallacies in Advertising
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Fallacies are all around you…
Advertisements in magazines, on
T.V., on billboards all contain
fallacies!
Can you think of a place where
there are NO advertisements?
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Probably not! That’s because
advertising is impossible to escape and
ad-free zones rarely exist.
Impact of Fallacies
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What might be the impact of being
told that we are not pretty,
handsome, rich, clean, or good
enough?
What does the casual acceptance of
surrounding ourselves with fallacies
say about us?
Types of Fallacies: Ad Hominem
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Ad Hominem (meaning “against the
person”) attacks the person and not the
issue
The major difficulty with labeling a piece
of reasoning as an ad hominem fallacy is
deciding whether the personal attack is
relevant.
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For example, attacks on a person for their
immoral sexual conduct are irrelevant to the
quality of their mathematical reasoning, but
they are relevant to arguments promoting the
person for a leadership position in the church.
Ad Hominem Example
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Person A makes claim X
There is something objectionable about Person A
Therefore claim X is false
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Example:
What she says about Johannes Kepler’s astronomy of the
1600’s must be just so much garbage. Do you realize she’s
only fourteen years old?
This attack may undermine the arguer’s credibility as a
scientific authority, but it does not undermine her reasoning.
That reasoning should stand or fall on the scientific evidence,
not on the arguer’s age or anything else about her personally.
Types of Fallacies: Appeal to Emotions
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Appeal to emotions manipulates people’s
emotions in order to get their attention
away from an important issue.
You commit the fallacy of appeal to
emotions when someone’s appeal to you
to accept their claim is accepted merely
because the appeal arouses your feelings
or anger, fear, grief, love, outrage, pity,
pride, sexuality, sympathy, relief, and so
forth.
Appeal to Emotions Example
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X makes me feel good. Therefore X is true.
When something is associated with good feelings, then it is
desirable and must be true. The converse is also true:
X makes me feel bad. Therefore X is bad.
9/11 makes me feel bad. 9/11 has been associated with Iraq.
Therefore, Iraq is bad.
Types of Fallacies: False Dilemma
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False dilemma limits the possible
choices to avoid consideration of
another choice.
A person who unfairly presents too
few choices and then implies that a
choice must be made among this
short menu of choices commits the
false dilemma fallacy.
False Dilemma Example
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I want to go to Scotland from London. I overheard McTaggart say
there are two roads to Scotland from London: the high road and
the low road. I expect the high road would be too risky because
it’s through the hills and that means dangerous curves. But it’s
raining now, so both roads are probably slippery. I don’t like
either choice, but I guess I should take the low road and be
safer.
This would be fine reasoning is you were limited to only two
roads, but you’ve falsely gotten yourself into a dilemma with such
reasoning. There are many other ways to get to Scotland. Don’t
limit yourself to these two choices. You can take other roads, or
go by boat or train or airplane.
Types of Fallacies: Appeal to the
People
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Appeal to the people uses the views of
the majority as a persuasive device.
If you suggest too strongly that
someone’s claim or argument is correct
simply because it’s what most everyone
believes, then you’ve committed the
fallacy of appeal to the people.
Similarly, if you suggest too strongly that
someone’s claim or argument is mistaken
simply because it’s not what most
everyone believes, then you’ve also
committed the fallacy.
Appeal to the People Example
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You should turn to channel 6. It’s the most watched channel this
year.
This is fallacious because of its implicitly accepting the
questionable premise that the most watched channel this year is,
for that reason alone, the best channel for you.
Types of Fallacies: Scare Tactic
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Scare tactic creates fear in people
as evidence to support a claim.
If you suppose that terrorizing your
opponent is giving him a reason for
believing that you are correct, you
are using a scare tactic and
reasoning fallaciously.
Scare Tactic Example
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David: My father owns the department store that gives your
newspaper fifteen percent of all its advertising revenue, so I’m
sure you won’t want to publish any story of my arrest for spray
painting the college.
Newspaper editor: Yes, David, I see your point. The story really
isn’t newsworthy.
David has given the editor a financial reason not to publish, but
he has not given a relevant reason why the story is not
newsworthy. David’s tactics are scaring the editor, but it’s the
editor who commits the scare tactic fallacy, not David. David has
merely used a scare tactic. This fallacy’s name emphasizes the
cause of the fallacy rather than the error itself.
Types of Fallacies: False Cause
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False Cause wrongly assumes a cause
and effect relationship.
Improperly concluding that one thing is a
cause of another
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Example: My psychic adviser says to expect
bad things when Mars is aligned with Jupiter.
Tomorrow Mars will be aligned with Jupiter.
So, if a dog were to bite me tomorrow, it
would be because of the alignment of Mars
with Jupiter.
Types of Fallacies: Hasty
Generalization
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Hasty generalization (or jumping to
conclusions) draws a conclusion
about a population based on a small
sample.
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Example: I’ve met two people in
Nicaragua so far, and they were both
nice to me. So, all people I will meet
in Nicaragua will be nice to me.
Types of Fallacies: Red Herring
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Red herring presents an irrelevant topic
to divert attention away from the original
issue.
A Red Herring is actually a smelly fish
that would distract even a bloodhound, so
in the case of advertisements…it causes
the viewer to become so distracted that
they forget about the true issue at hand.
Red Herring Example
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I know your car isn't working
right. But, if you had gone to the
store one day earlier, you'd not be
having problems.
I know I forgot to deposit the
check into the bank yesterday. But,
nothing I do pleases you.
Types of Fallacies: Traditional
Wisdom
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Traditional Wisdom uses the logic
that the way things used to be is
better than they are now, ignoring
any problems of the past.
If you say or imply that a practice
must be okay today simply because
it has been the apparently wise
practice in the past, you commit the
fallacy of traditional wisdom.
Traditional Wisdom Example
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We need to buy Gateway computers
because we’ve always bought
Gateway computers.
My wife should stay at home and be
a housewife because my mom
stayed at home and was a
housewife.
Applying What You Learned:
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You will now be working in small groups
to identify the types of fallacies used in
several different advertisements.
You can either use the advertisements
that I’ve provided, or you can refer to the
examples Solomon references, or you can
even reference the fake advertisements
used on the Futurama clip.
As a group, list examples for at least 5
fallacies studied today.
Works Cited
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Information taken from:
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http://www.readwritethink.org
The Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy: Fallacies