Fallacies in Advertising



|Fallacies in Advertising |[pic] |

Our lives are inundated with images that are designed with one purpose in mind – to sell. This is an opportunity to look critically at the advertisements that surround us in order to deconstruct the logical fallacies that fall under the guise of “marketing strategies”. The purpose of this assignment is to have students look critically at the media that surrounds us and to examine the fallacies which make modern advertisements so powerful.

Students will be given some class time to look at different advertisements using a variety of media types however you are encouraged to examine ads that you see regularly throughout a typical day. These can include: subway/bus advertisements, radio ads, television commercials, newspaper/magazine ads etc. You must recognize the target audience, the types of fallacies that are being implemented and why they are so effective in a chart form such as this:

|Advertisement |Slogan |Fallacy used |Target Audience |Message/ Effectiveness |

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Attachments of the advertisements examined are appreciated but not necessary. Students must recognize at least 3 different types of fallacies that are used in advertisements today.

In addition you are required to write a short (2-3 pages, typed and double-spaced) position paper on the logical fallacy that you feel is the most widely used and the most effective. Try to address the following questions:

• Who is the target audience? Would this fallacy be more effective on a different target audience?

• What is the hidden message behind the advertisements? (eg. does it target insecurities of weight, wealth, style etc.)

• What type of media does this fallacy dominate? (eg. purely t.v. ads or is it also used on the radio, during political speeches, everyday conversation etc.)

• If we accept logical fallacies so casually what does that say about our society?

Due Date:

Rubric:

| |Level 4 |Level 3 |Level 2 |Level 1 |

|Understanding of Logical |Many (>5) logical |4-5 logical fallacies |3-4 logical fallacies | ................
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