I was once on my way to a hockey game and my friend and I drove past a billboard that made us somewhat confused. The billboard said, “Embarrassment can’t kill you. Colon cancer can. Get a colonoscopy.” Featured on the billboard was an office woman whose dress was tucked into her undergarments. The company that created this advertisement was trying to imply that if anyone in the audience that that situation happen to them, they would be embarrassed. The problem with this ad is that embarrassment has nothing to do with colon cancer. These two instances have nothing to do with each other. It is true that embarrassment cannot kill you, but that does not necessarily mean that a person will get colon cancer and die, whether or not it is in the best interest of the audience to get a colonoscopy to prevent colon cancer. The photo on the advertisement grabs the attention of the audience, but the photo is completely irrelevant to a person’s connection to colon cancer. I believe that the billboard is certainly effective in its ability to grab the attention of the audience and make them think of the argument that the company is trying to get across. People driving down the road most likely will not take the time to realize that embarrassment has nothing to do with colon cancer. Despite this, it will make the audience wonder about colon cancer, and may even persuade them to get a colonoscopy. This advertisement presents its argument in a way that is memorable to the audience, despite the fact that the argument is not logically correct.
While browsing on Google I found an old advertisement. The ad was for Lustre-Crème Shampoo. It featured Marilyn Monroe, known for her beauteous looks and her parts in different movies. One of her movies was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Lustre-Crème was attempting to sell their shampoo through the use of fallacies. By saying that Marilyn Monroe that tells you nothing about the actual product: it simply attracts you to the pretty face in the picture. Using this as an argument of why someone should buy your product is quite illogical. Just because Marilyn Monroe uses it doesn’t provide assurance of its abilities. They attempt using snob appeal by trying to make the audience believe that they could be like Marilyn Monroe if they use the same product as her. They use appeal to illegitimate authority by using Marilyn Monroe to promote their product. Although she herself is a customer, this is still rather irrelevant. She herself has no type of expertise in hair products and knows nothing that
I agree with you Hannah! It is a convincing commercial even though it's not logical enough!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the fact that this is an illogical advertisement. Embarrassment and colon cancer are two very different things, colon cancer may be embarrassing but you cannot compare the two that the way that ad did.
ReplyDeletegood job with the description of the billboard. also, i can see why it made you confused. it sounds like a poorly made add.
ReplyDeleteGood job job finding this ad and figuring out whether or not their argument was valid or not.
ReplyDeletegood job finding the ad dont have a valid argument their argument dont used any logic
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job of showing how poor the logic is behind this argument. Most people would think that this would be embarrassing, but it's just the company trying to get their attention
ReplyDeleteGreat job Hannah! You had me confused just reading your description of the billboard(not because you were confusing, but because that billboard was definitely irrelevant). When you are driving, you want to be able to read a billboard that is clear and to the point, not one that you have to take a double take on. You had an excellent way of looking at this ad too. Good observation!
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