Discussion – Rhetorical Fallacies

The Non Sequitur fallacy

This is where critical thinking meets advertising!

In this fallacy the premises have no direct relationship to the conclusion. This fallacy appears in political speeches and advertising with great frequency. Example: A waterfall in the background and a beautiful girl in the foreground have nothing to do with an automobile’s performance.

Non Sequitur happens to be a favorite tool of those in marketing. Have you seen the Infiniti commercial that is playing the song, Luxury, and when the couple arrives home the announcer says, “True luxury should be lived in”? This statement is made after the commercial goes for a long drive. It doesn’t detail any of the luxury features of the car, and it has nothing to do with the car’s performance. What about the Kia Soul with the cool dancing hamsters singing “You wanna get this, or do you wanna get with that,” this question has nothing to do with the car being a well-built car to drive. Discuss some of your favorite fallacies!

Topic Sex sells?

Would you agree that sex does sells? Beautiful models who advertise soaps and cleaners sell because the advertisers are selling a look. Models are models because of how they look, and models look like less than 2% of society – this is my opinion of course. These looks are not real. These are fallacies that fall into a few different fallacy categories, one also being the ‘Appeal to Authority.’

The ‘Appeal to Authority’ fallacy is what advertisers use most to entice children, macho men, and sport fanatics. This is that special selective audience you discussed. This fallacy convinces the viewer that because a certain star or professional ball player owns the product, or it is cool to be seen having this product will gain market sells for the firm. Hanes uses Michael Jordan, so does Nike. Nike was so popular using Jordan that they gave Jordan his own brand, “Jordan’s”. The ‘Appeal to Authority’ fallacy is known by other names as well; appeal to loyalty, appeal to belief, and bandwagon.