Fallacies and Errors in Sound Reasoning

 False authority in advertisement is used by many companies to attract the buyers and increase the amount of revenue.  False authority is when the company’s spokesperson in the advisement   acts like an expert in particular but in real sense, the spokesperson is not an expert on the things being advertised.  The spokesperson acts as marketing tool to attract customers.  The opinion which the celebrity offers makes customer like the product as he or she behaves as an expert in something.  For example, “Ellen DeGeneres's Covergirl Commerical” is an advisement with false authority fallacy (Tong, 2015).   Ellen DeGeneres acts as a spokesperson and   attracts the intended audiences by showing them that   she is old but her skin is flawless as she uses ‘Simply Ageless Foundation’. The advertisers used the fallacy in the ad to capture the attention of the audiences and allow them see the benefits of using ‘Simple Ageless Foundation’ which gives a younger look (Tong, 2015).  The fallacy was not used effectively in that the adverse underrates the companies that sell ‘liquid foundation’ and says that the foundation makes someone look like an apricot or older.  Again, there is no evidence or true credentials for this but   a conclusion is made   with an aim of making false beliefs.  If I were an advertiser, I could show evidence that women who use liquid foundation have wrinkles and lines on their faces so that they audience can see the difference (Tong, 2015).

Appeal to ignorance: in appeal to ignorance, a fallacy is made when the spokesman makes a statement which cannot be proven true or false. Due to lack of evidence, audiences tend to rely on the conclusion that something is true or false as it is initially stated. For example, in ‘Alec in Huluwood’ advisement, Alec Baldwin advertises Hulu websites by stating that ‘TV will rot your brain’ (MCCARTHY, 2009).  The advertiser used this fallacy to allow the television audiences’ shift from TV to Hulu.  This fallacy was not effective because there is no evidence that TV rots the brain. As an advertiser, I could offer substantial premises and real evidence to allow the audiences understand how TV affects the brain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

MCCARTHY C. (2009). Hulu: We're evil, and proud of it. Retrieved from:

https://www.cnet.com/news/hulu-were-evil-and-proud-of-it/

 

Tong Emily. (2015). Ellen DeGeneres's Covergirl Commerical. Retrieved from:

http://aplac7thperiod.blogspot.co.ke/2015/01/covergirl-commericalemily-tong.html