Logical fallacies are everywhere. On every corner, you hear things like "If you do this, you will be that" or "Since everyone is doing it, you should too". Because it's so deeply integrated into our lives, sometimes it's hard to notice the logical error in such statements. I think that the lesson we had in class helped me better understand how widespread these errors in reasoning are, and how commonly they are used in advertisements and media for the purpose of swaying the public from one side of the argument to another.
Let's take a look at a Subway commercial that came out in 2012, starring Michael Phelps and his mother Debbie. This advertisement is several logical fallacies at once. Firstly, it's an appeal to authority. Michael Phelps is a very successful athlete, so if he says that Subway sandwiches are good, it must be true. It's also a false cause fallacy, because it traces a connection that if you want to be like Michael Phelps, you should eat Subway. Lastly, the advertisement uses an appeal to emotion fallacy when it shows the interaction between mother and her son. "Look, she is bringing him food because she wants him to be fueled during his training, and recover quickly afterwards. Isn't it sweet?" But in the end, all of these statements are false. Neither Phelps' authority nor his mother's caring character signify that Subway sandwiches are good or helpful in accomplishment of one's goals.
What did make me want to eat at Subway was the food closeups at the end of the clip. More cheese-pulling and bacon-juice-dripping please!
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