English 2 sec 41
Dr. Tom Sloane
Sept 5 '95
Ad analysis
Becky McClure
Dear Mary:
I know this is your first semester at WVU and as your mother I wanted you to beware of false advertisements that you might see in the DA or in all the magazines I know you subscribe to. Please, don't waste my money on false advertising appeals!
Why are there a lot of advertisements in our society, and what are so many advertisements published for? It is easy to ask these questions. It is because a company wants many customers to buy its products as many as or as much as possible. So, the company use some strategies to sell them to customers. These strategies will give us impressive information about its product, but sometimes or most of the time, the information is exaggerated and distorted when it comes to a customer's mind. I would like to say that customers should pay attention to the advertisement if the advertisement is credible or reliable. Here is an example of an exaggerated advertisement, "Milk, What a surprise!" which is presented by National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board.
The advertisement mentions, "You thought I'd be endorsing an after-sports drink. And I am. Milk. Not only is it a better source of potassium than the leading sports drink, but it also has more vitamins and minerals per ounce." . The advertisement emphasizes that milk provide us much more nutrition than a sports drink. However, it is not appropriate to compare milk to a sports drink. We drink a sports drink because we are thirsty after exercises. On the other hand, We drink a milk because it is good for health, and has a lot of nutrition. The purpose of endorsing each drink is totally different. Even if we drink a milk for thirsty after the sports, do we really need to consider nutrition? We drink something after sports just because we are thirsty. This comparison is as we compare a pencil with an eraser to see which is good. Thus, this comparison is inappropriate because each drink is endorsed for different purposes.
To receive accurate, reliable information from an advertisement, we have to pay attention to "how many people think so," or " What rate of people agree the idea." In the advertisement, there is just a person, Gabriela Sabatini, who says that milk is better than a sports drink after sports. Our textbook defines the use of a celebrity who has no qualifications about a product as false testimonial. This ad represents just such a fallacy. I want to ask you that how many people around you say so like Sabatini. I even doubt if she is really drinking a milk after sports because I have never seen her drinking a milk during play tennis on TV. We need to make sure how many or what rate of people agree the idea of the advertisement. If most of the students at WVU say that milk is better than any sports drink after exercises, you will think so more or less, but there is just a person who says so. Statistically the advertisement is not accurate and reliable.
Well, why does the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board present just a person on the advertisement? This is because the person can persuade millions on people at the same time. Gabriela Savatini is one of the best tennis players in the world and so attractive so that she has a power to fascinate and persuade us. She also has a high social status. She is a physically and socially attractive person. That is why she is only presented in the advertisement. It is enough to persuade a lot of person with her.
As we see, we acquire the information from the advertisement, "Milk, what a surprise!", with distorted image about it. Any company publish a lot of advertisement not for giving us information but for making us buy its products. Thus, the information we receive from an advertisement is not always accurate, credible and reliable. We have to pay more attention to any information not to put distorted information in our minds. I hope you'll keep this in mind when you read magazines and newspapers, especially the ads.
Mary, please be careful what you read and how you read. Beware of logical fallacies and you'll have more money left for your Spring Break trip to Florida!
Love,
Mom