Rhetorical Fallacy Essay
Jonathan Walton
Professor Sean Ferrier-Watson
English 1301
10 October 2013
Scheming Advertisements: Unveiling the Fallacies Amongst Us Throughout my life, I have been entertained and persuaded by the world of advertisements. But like Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the images painted by these ads are either tainted do to the sneaky incorporation of fallacies. These fallacies may act in different forms; some of them are almost insidiously trying to persuade you while others, have an odd and blatant approach. The commercials are for the Axe Apollo deodorant spray, Gamefly video game rental service, and the Mercedes-Benz automobile company; they all contain different fallacies that attempt to persuade you in different ways. These examples will show you how fallacies, though coming with different approaches, have the same purpose – getting you to buy their product. The Axe Apollo is one of the commercials that portrayed its fallacy, Hasty Generalization, in an obvious manner. (1) In the ad, a fireman runs up a burning building and rescues a damsel in distress in the most epic and valiant of ways. Outside as the fireman puts his fire protective cloak on the woman; they began to have an emotional moment. The woman then glances over her hero’s soldier to find an approaching astronaut. Love-struck, she shrugs off the fireproof jacket and runs into the arms of the astronaut, leaving the fireman heart broken in all his fruitless perfection. In bold letters, a caption states “Nothing beats an Astronaut – Ever.” The target audiences of this commercial are males: mainly adults and teenagers included. This can be inferred by how the caption seems to be giving advice to boys trying to smell appealing for the ladies. Also, young children who have not yet hit puberty will find little need of the deodorant. This fallacy was probably not unintentional because of the hastily generalized statement with the purpose of amusement. It uses emotional appeal or pathos to persuade
Professor Sean Ferrier-Watson
English 1301
10 October 2013
Scheming Advertisements: Unveiling the Fallacies Amongst Us Throughout my life, I have been entertained and persuaded by the world of advertisements. But like Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the images painted by these ads are either tainted do to the sneaky incorporation of fallacies. These fallacies may act in different forms; some of them are almost insidiously trying to persuade you while others, have an odd and blatant approach. The commercials are for the Axe Apollo deodorant spray, Gamefly video game rental service, and the Mercedes-Benz automobile company; they all contain different fallacies that attempt to persuade you in different ways. These examples will show you how fallacies, though coming with different approaches, have the same purpose – getting you to buy their product. The Axe Apollo is one of the commercials that portrayed its fallacy, Hasty Generalization, in an obvious manner. (1) In the ad, a fireman runs up a burning building and rescues a damsel in distress in the most epic and valiant of ways. Outside as the fireman puts his fire protective cloak on the woman; they began to have an emotional moment. The woman then glances over her hero’s soldier to find an approaching astronaut. Love-struck, she shrugs off the fireproof jacket and runs into the arms of the astronaut, leaving the fireman heart broken in all his fruitless perfection. In bold letters, a caption states “Nothing beats an Astronaut – Ever.” The target audiences of this commercial are males: mainly adults and teenagers included. This can be inferred by how the caption seems to be giving advice to boys trying to smell appealing for the ladies. Also, young children who have not yet hit puberty will find little need of the deodorant. This fallacy was probably not unintentional because of the hastily generalized statement with the purpose of amusement. It uses emotional appeal or pathos to persuade