6/27/12 5:21 PMLogical Fallacies in Advertising Biodork

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Logical Fallacies in AdvertisingYou know when you hear a bad argument and you think that doesnt make anysense!? Logical fallacies are one way to categorize and define these poor arguments.

Poor arguments happen. By knowing and understanding fallacies, its easier tospot poor arguments when they are used by others and by ourselves. They help us toexamine our own reasoning and allow us to explore logically why we feel the way wedo about certain issues. When arguing with someone else, it helps to keep the argu-ments relevant and the discussion on topic.

Poor arguments can be made ignorantly (i.e., the person making the argument doesntrecognize that their argument is poor) and intentionally (well, technically what Isaid was true, even if the implication was false). Michelle Bachman and Glenn BeckSome people have built entire careers out of making fallacious arguments.

These are some of my favorite fallacies, and examples of them:

Ad hominem Michelle Bachman has crazy eyes, therefore anything she says is alie. To automatically dismiss all of MBs arguments just because she has crazy eyes islazy. We have to listen to her speak, consider her statements and then decide if (onceagain) shes making batsh*t crazy invalid claims.

Slippery slope - If we let gay people get married, next there will be men marryinghorses!

Generalization - Enron was a large, corrupt company, therefore all large companiesare corrupt.

Straw man Misrepresentation of your opponents statement. When the Hubby saysThat girl has nice eyes and I say Oh, so you think my eyes are ugly. thats astraw man.

Because arguments are intended to influence the way we think about things, the deci-sions we make and our actions, you can find examples of fallacious arguments inpolitics, in courtrooms, in schools, and especially in marketing and advertising. Here are

6/27/12 5:21 PMLogical Fallacies in Advertising Biodork

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some examples that Ive encountered in the last few weeks:

This is an implied False Dichotomy. False Dichotomy says that you only have twooptions. In this case you can use a filthy, disgusting cloth towel OR you can useKleenex Hand Towels a clean, fresh towel every time! There are other optionsthoughlike changing out your reusable cloth towel before it looks like the microbefarm shown in the picture.

6/27/12 5:21 PMLogical Fallacies in Advertising Biodork

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This is an Appeal to Tradition, the idea being that because something is old or wevebeen doing it forever it must be accurate or based on evidence. Something being ancientdoesnt automatically make it better. Other cereals use granola and almonds too, not be-cause theyre ancient, but because they have nutritional value and are tasty. The Appealto Tradition is often used to market alternative therapies e.g., Acupuncture has beenused for centuries!

6/27/12 5:21 PMLogical Fallacies in Advertising Biodork

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If an argument makes you go WTF???, then you may be dealing with a Non Sequitur,in which the conclusion does not follow from its premisei.e. the statement makes nosense. In this case, giving up implies failurehow is not shopping giving up or afailure? One does not have anything to do with the other.

Not all consequences of logical fallacies are equal. The three examples above are fairlyinnocuous and all I did was snort when I saw them (actually I squeeed because Improud of myself when I recognize logical fallacies in everyday situations). The onlything at stake was a decision to buy or not buy paper towels or cereal; Id probably nev-er complain to a company about the situations above. However, some fallacious argu-ments are the stuff of nightmares and need to be addressed. The statement My daugh-ter developed autism immediately after getting her MMR vaccine, therefore vaccines

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cause autism. is a dangerous fallacious statement (correlation not causation the twoevents are related in time, but there is no evidence that one could cause the other) thatcan lead to unhealthy choices and have serious consequences for individuals andgroups of people.

Because arguments are as wide and varied as the humans who make them, the list offallacies is constantly growing and evolving. There are a bunch of websites that can helpus understand the types of fallacies and how and when they might be used (searchfallacies when youve got a couple hours or so to invest).

Its really easy to make fallacious arguments; avoiding them and recognizing themwhen they do occur is challenging and requires constant vigilance. I may be makingsome in this very article, and Im sure that I could find examples of poor arguments inother blog posts that Ive written. Making a fallacious argument isnt the end of theworld. But if you are caught making a poor argument, you owe it to yourself and theperson with whom you are engaging to say yeah, youre right rather than nuh uh,you stupid poopy head!*

*See what I did there? An ad hominem example AND Ive left myself an out if you find mistakesin my article. Cover My Ass WIN! As an aside, it was really difficult for me to write an articleon logical fallacies; it made me paranoid about every sentence in the damn thing. It was like be-ing asked to spellcheck a paper for someone and worrying that I might write Youre spelling andgramer is bad.

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Tags: Logical Fallacies

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