Logical Fallacies in Dieting Commercials and Political Advertisements

According to Gary Curtis, a logical fallacy is a mistake in reasoning. (Curtis, 2012) There are, at least, ten of them that we know of. Many dieting commercials, like Nutri-System, can lay claim to a few of them. I believe that Nutri-System uses appeal to popularity and appeal to emotion. The appeal to popularity comes from the use of Jennifer Hudson and Marie Osmond touting them and the appeal to emotion comes from the need of obese women to lose weight. The fallacy comes in because a normal woman is not going to be able to afford the trainers and gym membership and all the help needed to lose as much weight as these two women have done. The only way to make this truthful is to get normal women, who cannot afford the extra help, and let them be the ones to tell us about Nutri-System. The second logical fallacy that I choose to write about is any political advertisement during any political campaign. Yes, I may seem cynical, however, I have never known a politician to get into office and do what he/she said they were going to do. The fallacy that is used here can be nearly any of the ones named from personal attack to appeal to ignorance. We have all heard our politicians attack each other, therefore, personal attack; appeal to ignorance enters when we do not do our homework on what a certain politician says or promises. Can it be done? Is it even constitutional? These are the things that some people do not even bother to find out. As for a fix, I am not sure that there is one. Again, I am cynical.

References
Curtis, G. (2012). What is logical fallacy? Retrieved from Fallacy Files:

References: Curtis, G. (2012). What is logical fallacy? Retrieved from Fallacy Files: http://www.fallacyfiles.org/introtof.html