Rhetorical Fallacies of Advertisements
Advertisements bombard the world every day with products that marketers claim will make their lives better. The ads lure in unsuspecting victims with lush landscapes and beautiful women along with "professionals" recommending the products. These consumers have fallen victim to the marketer's rhetorical strategies. For instance, the ad supplied with this review is full of rhetorical fallacies which would affect consumers to buy the manufacturer's goods. The ad provided is a toothpaste ad that has three principal images going on to influence the buyer. Two of the images are phrases which promote the product and the other image are of an attractive woman using the toothpaste. These images contain fallacies which influence the average consumer without their knowing and are effective in getting across to consumers that they need to buy the toothpaste product. In the ad, a woman can be seen in the background smiling and holding a toothbrush with some toothpaste applied on to the bristles. Using attractive people in advertisements are common. It can appeal to both the male audience and female audience in different, but effective ways. In this ad, argumentum ad passiones, appeal to emotion is the fallacy used to manipulate the consumer. However, this ad works differently for each sex. The woman used in the ad would be considered attractive and appeals to the male audience in a sexual manner. If a male is walking down the aisle and sees a toothpaste container with an attractive female on it, then he is more than likely going to take a second to look at the container and say to himself, "Hey, she's pretty hot!" From that point the male associates the toothpaste with attractiveness and makes a hasty generalization that using this product will attract ladies who are of the same quality and attractiveness of the lady on the box. This point is also driven by the biological need to reproduce, and fertility is unconsciously connected to attractiveness. So, as the male strolls