Logical Fallacies Within Commercials

The logical fallacy I chose to analyze was found within American advertising. Specifically, the advertisement was a flash mob organized by T-Mobile to encourage smartphone users to switch plans. The commercial starts off with one guy dancing in the center of Liverpool Station to blaring music. As time goes on, the songs change, and more and more people join in to dance to the music. While some of these are actors, a great deal of people spontaneously started dancing themselves, even though they didn’t know what was going on. This is an example of bandwagon appeal, because many people began dancing to the music without truly understanding why they were doing it.

Another commercial that exudes fallacy is the Taco Bell commercial for their new bacon club chalupa. The commercial begins with two women at a club looking for guys. One woman claims that she knows how to attract one, because, “guys love bacon”. Almost immediately after she says this, several men come over to them and comment on how good they smell. This is a hasty generalization, in which the woman believes that because “guys love bacon” they will be drawn to her if she carries the Taco Bell bacon club chalupa. She immediately assumes that all men love bacon, and the commercial supports this fallacy by showing her successful results.

A third commercial containing logical error is the 2014 Chevy commercial titled “Maddie”. This commercial begins with a woman kissing her dog. The commercial then cuts to several clips of the girl growing up with the dog, learning how to drive, experiencing a breakup, and celebrating her birthday. At the end of the commercial, the girl has grown up and her dog is gone. However, the girl is now married with a kid, and she and her family pile into their 2014 Chevy to get a new puppy, whom their daughter loves immediately. The commercial then states, “A best friend for life’s journey.” This is a logical fallacy because it appeals heavily to the emotions of the watcher. The commercial contains absolutely no information about the structure or statistics pertaining to the car’s performance. Rather, it explicitly relies on the idea that the viewer will be swayed to buy the Chevy for the sake of sentimentality and familiarity. Without a doubt, American commercials are littered with an abundance of logical errors.