Analysis Of Thank You For Smoking

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Thank you for smoking is a satirical comedy about a lobbyist whose job is to promote tobacco use at a time when the disease burden secondary to smoking threatens to cripple the nation. The film presents how industries, media and the government interact to influence the consumers’ decision. While the use of rhetoric, such as fallacies and twisted truths, is evident throughout the film, it is most evident midway when the chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, assists his son with his assignment. The son, Joey Naylor, enquires why the American government is the best and in response, the father argues it is because of America’s ‘endless appeals system’ (Thank you for smoking). His response seamlessly captures the tone of the movie as much as it represents the extensive use of a combination of fallacious arguments and twisted truths. This essay attempts to analyse the use of fallacies and twisted truths to appeal to the emotion of the
Naylor says he does his job because every person has a mortgage to pay, aligning himself with hundreds of people who hold the same belief. His justification appeals particularly to homeowners who have to pay a mortgage because they understand why he needs to be a lobbyist regardless of the client he works for. That everyone must financially support himself or herself is a reason enough to appeal to the audience.
The genetic fallacy accepts or discredits a claim based on the circumstances under which the claim originates. If the source is credible, the society takes the claim without questioning. In Thank you for Smoking, Nick Naylor uses this fallacy to sway the emotion of the audience. According to the film he is “the president of and chief spokesman for the Academy of tobacco Studies’, a position that sounds notable as it is professional. Based on Nick’s position the audience takes him as a credible source of information, making it easy for him to

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