Examples Of Fallacies In Advertising

Fallacies in Ads: Everyone is Doing It! Fallacies are common errors in reasoning (Weber and Brizee). We see ads on T.V., in newspapers, magazines and we even hear them on the radio. When we see or listen to these ads, we always take what they say about the product to be true and want the product being advertised to us. Then again that is the purpose of ads, right? To make people want to buy their products. Some fallacies that I found include either/or reasoning, bandwagon, overreliance on authority, and red herring. The first fallacy was an ad that resembles the either/or reasoning fallacy, which is “A conclusion that over simplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices” (Weber and Brizee). It was in ad for Kleenex hand towels, it states that “Your hands are only as clean as the towel used to dry them.”, and there is a picture showing half of a filthy towel and a clean Kleenex hand towel. Now, I honestly don’t think someone would have a filthy towel like that in their …show more content…
I found an ad for Clinique, and the ad stated that “The lotion is a cult classic. Loved by millions. So we asked our dermatologists for a formula drier skins could call their own. Get addicted to that healthy glow.” By saying “Join the cult” and also saying that it is “loved by millions”, makes it bandwagon. Since they want people to buy their products, saying that it is “loved by millions” might get people thinking that this product is really good since so many people love and use it. When it mentions that dermatologists came up with the formula, that is overreliance on authority because now we know/think Clinique is really going to work on your skin. There are other brands of moisturizing creams like Pods and Olay, Clinique is just a ‘bigger’ name brands I