Bandwagon Fallacy In Advertising

There are many ways that companies convince people to become interested in their products. They use many tactics called fallacies to persuade the public through mind tricks of emotional stabilities of feeling accepted to feeling like the consumer will become as pretty as the model using the latest make up. Fallacies are used so much in everyday life that people do not think twice about the advertisements they are actually seeing, never knowing that subconsciously they are either for or against the fallacy being shown to them.

A bandwagon fallacy is used to pressure the public to buy or use a product or object that a company is trying to sell. The bandwagon fallacy uses emotions or celebrities to force a feeling of guilt or an emotion of envy that the consumer does not or has not tried the product being presented. Many consumers do not realize just how much the bandwagon fallacy follows them around in their everyday lives; from billboards to magazines and even television commercials. The bandwagon fallacy is as much a part of the modern world as electricity.

The bandwagon fallacy is assessed as an appeal to the growing population. Magazines use advertisements as a way to grab the attention of

the consumer to get them to have interest to buy the latest product in the latest stores and companies. They use models and celebrities to sell products like cold & flu medicine. The Magazine named People have an advertisement using a model family to show that “moms do not take sick days they use Dayquil and Nyquil.” (1) Using this type of language the company is trying to get mothers to jump “on the bandwagon” to believe that other “good” mothers are using their products to stay healthy so the product must work. That is how the companies use this fallacy in magazines; they do not use many words but more models and examples to get the consumer interested.
When a consumer drives to and from work what do they unintentionally see every day? Billboards are on all roads and highways with many different advertisements showing different fallacies to get consumers attention and hopefully their business. The main billboard circling is a Nike add saying, “come together right now”. (2) The company wants to show that the consumer that they are a “family” and they want the latest consumer to join the family by buying the latest shoe. When people feel that they are a part of something it makes them feel more comfortable and more vulnerable to make rash and hasty decisions.
Another fallacy that companies use to inspire a purchase is the Appeal to Authority fallacy.

Appeal to authority is committed when a person cites a witness or an authority who, there is good reason to believe, is unreliable. Like if a celebrity says that the toothpaste they “use” is the best toothpaste on the market; they have no authority to disclose anything more than an opinion on what brand of toothpaste is the best because they do not have a dental degree or any actual way to back up their words. Another Appeal to Authority is when the authority on the matter is an actual expert on the subject, but is bias toward one side of the issue. They have a degree to back up their opinion but are being paid by a company to endorse the product that the producer has to

offer.
Appeal to emotion is an argument that attempts to arouse emotions of an audience in order to gain acceptance of its conclusion. The appeal to emotion fallacy advises the public to vote for a particular candidate or support the government’s decision to do things. Although emotion is not always out of place in logical thinking, there is no doubt that strong emotions can undermine rational thought and play into what the producers want. Non-sequiturs are also usually found in advertising. Non sequitur is a conclusion that does not follow the evidence. Any car or drink commercial that associates its products with barely clothed women shows that men who buy these products can impress their friends or become more inviting to beautiful women. Advertisements always use people who are fit and have the ideal body or show that when the consumer purchases the product they will be surrounded by beautiful and athletic people.
The logical fallacies of bandwagon, appeal to emotion or feelings, non-sequitur, and appeal to authority are often found in advertising to convince us to purchase certain products, whether we truley need them or not. In order to think exactly, we need the proper skills to see the fallacy at hand. Whether reading advertisements, deciding which bread to buy, or what a new toothpaste brand seems like a good idea, people need to know how to carefully examine the statement to determine the truth of the commodity. When a product’s argument is flawed, it is usually from a type of fallacy. Fallacies are defects in an argument, which cause the argument to be invalid or feeble. By understanding what fallacies are and where to see them, we can avoid engaging with them and detect when other people use them.