ENGLISH PRESENTATION

Sergio A. SampleStudent

English 147

Logical Fallacies in Advertisement

Horses and Fish and Hedgehogs (and People): Oh My!

Horses

(Ford Motor Company, 2018)
Horses

False Analogy Fallacy
Definition: When two items are compared to one another to make a point, but the comparison is not truly logical.

At first glance, it seems that Ford Motor Company is suggesting that Mustangs are just so powerful that they need a garage or else they will escape. The image of the horse on the car’s grille paired with the closing garage door leads the viewer to think about live horses and stables. Comparing a car to a horse works in several ways: to demonstrate the model, Mustang, to indicate automobile’s (horse)power, and to make us think of the car as a living being with a will of its own. It’s quite effective.
However, the comparison between a horse and a car in this image and with the text presents a false analogy fallacy. Even if we love Ford Mustangs, we know that cars don’t need to be held at bay while they aren’t being driven. We like garages, but this isn’t why we use them. A car is not a horse, but the advertisement wants us to feel that comparison in a way that persuades us to want to purchase a Mustang car – powerful, wild, untamed, even magically alive in ways that other cars are not.

Fish and Hedgehogs
(DDB Germany, 2018)

Oversimplification
Fallacy
Definition: When a point is argued by reducing a complicated procedure to a much simpler and therefore non-logical explanation.

When we see this ad, our eye is immediately drawn to sharp quills with vulnerable goldfish in delicate bags of water around it. We think, “dangerous!” However, the bags are intact, and the hedgehog is sitting perfectly still. It’s a compelling image and a beautifully created visual.
The eye is next drawn to the wording. We see that the ad is about precision parking and Volkswagen automobiles. Nothing else is provided, just those words and the image. The fallacy of oversimplification is at play here because while many of us do feel like a hedgehog surrounded by live bags of goldfish when we try to parallel park, the mechanisms involved in precision parking technology are complicated, non-biological functions. The car doesn’t “think” about the surroundings; it is programmed to use sensors paired with a human brain and human action. The ad is saying, “Look what you can do with precision parking; it’s that easy.” In fact, it is not.
The hedgehog did not use precision parking, or even deliberate thought, to have its image placed between bags of live fish. A human using real precision parking on a real street, with other real humans and vehicles surrounding them, will not feel easily picked up and set down with no worries about perfect alignment or about harming others in the vicinity.

…and People. Oh My.
(Sanilac County Health Department, 2019)

Either/Or Fallacy
Definition: An Either/Or Fallacy occurs when a point is attempted to be made by giving the reader (or viewer) only two extreme options. The stance of the arguer is one option, but the only other option is overly exaggerated and falsely suggests that there are no other possible options. In argument, this can cause the reader or viewer to look at the “bad” option and think, “I definitely don’t want that.” Therefore, the reader/viewer will have only one other choice. In reality, though, there are many choices, which is why this technique is fallacious.

Like most advertisements, this ad contains several fallacies. This particular ad also contains some highly offensive implications. The ad uses an either/or fallacy to convince young women to not get pregnant so that they can pursue their dreams. It says, “Do you want to be the woman on the right? Then don’t be the woman on the left. You can only be one of them.”
While it is certainly offensive to suggest that if you are the woman on the left, you are somehow “bad” or “shameful,” that is the presumed grounds on which the argument is based: If you don’t want to be this shameful, pitiful woman on the left, then behave in a “correct” manner and be a “winner” like the woman on the right.
Offensive nature aside, the either/or fallacy is multi-faceted:
Either you get pregnant and cry, or you don’t get pregnant and smile.
Either you get pregnant and ruin your future, or you don’t get pregnant and be a success.
Either you get pregnant and be such an object of shame that you hide your face, or you don’t get pregnant and cross your arms, looking in a superior manner at pregnant women.
We know that none of these statements is logical. We also know that there are endless futures for every single young woman, whether she becomes pregnant or not. This is a glaring visual and verbal either/or fallacy.

References

DDB, Germany. (2018, November 28). Precision parking: Park assist by Volkswagen [Advertisement]. https://www.adsoftheworld.com/
Ford Motor Company. (2018, October 19). Built Ford proud [Advertisement]. https://media.ford.com
Sanilac County Health Department. (2019, April). Take control of your future [Billboard].