Finding Fallacies in Advertisements or Elsewhere

Finding Logical Fallacies In Advertisements and Online

Logical Fallacies are everywhere, but they can almost always be found in advertisements that want your money. If you choose Option One, you will find and analyze logical fallacies in advertisements. If you choose Option Two, you will come up with your own topic and plan that examines how Logical Fallacies work in a specific context and why we need to understand that they are false.

For Option One, As you look at ads for different products or services, start to narrow down what interests you, and think about the topic: finding the logical fallacies in advertisements. How is the ad manipulating you? What techniques is it using? Compare these to the list of Logical Fallacies. Find more than one ad to describe and show how Logical Fallacies are used in these ads.

Developing Your Ideas and Plan: As you focus on each ad, describe it clearly (attaching a photo is a good idea too) and explain what fallacy or fallacies it is using. USE THE NAME/S OF THE FALLACIES and EXPLAIN WHAT THEY ARE IN YOUR PAPER. For example, if an ad claims that “everyone knows that Spirit Airlines are best!” You might see that as a Bandwagon Fallacy, which you will then define for the reader (Bandwagon Fallacy suggests everyone is doing something, so it must be great). But is the Fallacy true? Is Spirit Airlines really the best? Checking their online reviews will show you that most people think it’s a terrible airline. If no proof is offered other than the Fallacy, the ad is probably false.

Think like this as you gather sources: Logical Fallacies are used for a reason. WHY is the advertiser using this fallacy?

Analysis: What do YOU think about the fallacy in the ad? As you look for examples, think about Paper #3 and how you might want to approach the topic in your paper. You can use these examples if you like them! The ads are your research, but if you want to do additional research, that is fine too!

For Option Two: Think of another area of life where logical fallacies are prevalent. Perhaps you have been manipulated by Logical Fallacies at school, or at home, or at work, or online. For example, you may have been conditioned to believe something your parents or a person with power over you believes to be true, but as time has gone on, you now know that their truth is NOT your own truth, and that it is a Logical Fallacy. You can choose a personal topic like this for your paper, and the more examples of it you can include, the better. As another possible topic, maybe you have seen Logical Fallacies used in politics, sports, or history. Perhaps you are seeing them RIGHT NOW in the Presidential Race and have found them to be a central focus of a candidates’ strategies or actions. Find a theme or story that connects your examples in a paper, and give examples of logical fallacies–these could be fallacies used and believed by other people or perhaps even by you! If you need more assistance, let me know what your topic is, and I can point you in the right direction. Include some research in the paper.

SHORT WRITING EXERCISE–POST BELOW:

Below, explain how logical fallacies have been used in your own life, and describe one ad or a different example (not an ad) that you might want to write about in your paper. Explain the fallacy (or fallacies) used, and explain why you think the advertiser or writer/speaker used this fallacy–what is the motive behind it? What do YOU think of this fallacy?

COMMENT about other people’s Fallacies and statements. What do YOU see in the example?