If you can’t trust advertisers, who can you trust? – Discussion

Let’s start this week doing something fun, and by fun I mean taking a close look at advertisements and what message they are trying to sell us. Here is what I want you to do:

Find an advertisement that contains one of the 5 fallacies listed below. Describe the ad, identify the fallacy being used, and then explain why you believe that the advertisers have used that fallacy. Also, make sure to include a link to a video or post a picture of the ad.

Here is the list of fallacies for this topic:

equivocation
false authority
ad hominem
appeal to ignorance
bandwagon
If you want to get really creative (and have a good laugh), find an ad from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or 1980s!

Solution Preview

As an audience, we value advertising as we get to see new products and creativity of our fellow human beings. Advertising is used to convince people that spending money on their product is realistic and a good idea. Promotion usually prompts the viewers to get something that they probably do not need. Companies make commercials for their profit (Curtis, 2011).

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