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ISRP March 10 - Logical Fallacies In Advertising (and More Morality)

Today we talked about fallacies in advertising. You used fallacies to come up with ads for some pretty terrible products. Your homework is to look at 3 ads and fill in THIS SHEET.

Here is an example:



Advertisement for ______Guinness_________________


Summary of ad:

Guys in wheelchairs playing basketball. It looks hard. I felt bad for them. After the game, all but one get out of wheelchairs, then they go to a pub. We realize the others were in wheelchairs just to be good friends. The narrator says that the choices you make determine the kind of person you are.



Logical Fallacies in Ad:

Appeal to emotion - that these guys are being good friends doesn't make Guinness a desirable product.



Did the fallacies help sell the product, or did they make the ad worse?

Honestly, yes - I am a sucker for appeal to emotion. It made me associate the product with a good feeling.


(End of example)

Also, we listened to a follow-up episode of Radiolab:



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