7.11: Exercises

1. Examine some advertisements and commercials; and find examples of three different techniques of deception mentioned in this chapter. Clip, copy, or describe each one, and then say what it is an example of and how you made this determination.

2. Consider the deceptive advertising technique in this letter that says, "You've just won a free vacation for two in Hawaii or Puerto Rico. Three days, two nights, in a lovely island paradise. Call 666-7733 to claim your prize." Sounds pretty good, no? If you were to call, you would eventually learn the rest of the story. Yes, you will be given two nights for free in a hotel, but you have to agree to attend a three-hour lecture each day about purchasing land on the island. There are other strings attached to the trip. You must agree to pay for a high-priced flight to the hotel on the advertiser's chartered planes. You must also stay in their hotel and pay for at least two meals a day in the hotel restaurant.

The letter’s deceptive advertising technique can best be described as

• failing to appreciate that extraordinary statements require extraordinarily good evidence to back them up.
• inconsistency in the reasoning.
• using a half-truth.
• stereotyping.

3. Prepare a six-minute debate between yourself and someone in your class who disagrees with you about whether some person made the right choice.

■ 4. Create a five-second radio commercial that advertises some product. Use the technique of persuading without giving any reasons. Make the commercial seem realistic, not silly.

[Reminder: Exercises that begin with the ■ symbol are answered in the accompanying footnote.]

5. Choose a recent news story and compare the pros and cons of how it is treated on the nightly TV news with how it is treated the next day in the newspaper.

6. Compose an original paragraph that uses some means of deceiving the reader yet still gives the whole truth.

7. When you receive a chain letter, you receive a letter with a message you are likely to agree with plus a short list of people and their addresses. You are asked to (a) send money to the person at the top of the list, (b) copy the letter, placing your own name and address at the bottom of the list and removing the name and address of the person at the top of the list, and (c) send copies of the revised letter on to several new people you know. Why does creating a chain letter qualify as being a technique of deception?

■ 8. Here is a news report that is not objective because it contains loaded terminology. Rewrite it to be more objective.

The spokeswoman for the pro-abortion group blatantly admitted today that the mother of the unborn child can murder the child if she "chooses."

9. This news report that is not objective because it contains loaded terminology. Edit it to be more objective.

The "female" leader of the anti-choice group said today that a pregnant woman is "guilty of murder" if she exercises her right to control her own body by aborting the fetus.

■ 10. Find the loaded language, if any, that is used to slant the following description of the event positively or negatively. The speaker is Jewish writer Annette Rubenstein, author of the two-volume work The Great Tradition in English Literature: From Shakespeare to Shaw. She is describing an event that occurred right after her graduation.

When I left Columbia [University] with a doctorate in philosophy I graduated into the Depression [of the 1930s]. I wanted very badly to teach philosophy, but it was difficult for a woman to find such employment. The head of the philosophy department got me an offer at Bryn Mawr University on condition I would change my name. At that time there were very few Jewish professors and those that were there were teaching German and foreign languages mostly. Of course I wouldn't change my name, and he said, "Well, they know it; it's not deceiving anybody. It's just that they thought it wouldn't look good in the catalogue. Why don't you translate it to Redstone ?"

Which word is loaded and used to slant the description positively or negatively?

a. Jewish b. Redstone c. offer d. foreign e. none of the above

■ 11. What do you notice that is odd, from a critical thinking perspective, about this poll question?

If you were to learn that people from Germany generally have more bacteria on their skin than people from France, would you prefer to buy Schmidt’s apple jelly from Germany or Lyon’s apple jelly from France?

a. Why am I being asked about only two kinds of apple jelly? Aren’t there other kinds?

b. Sounds like a push poll.

c. Isn’t the cost relevant here?

d. Shouldn’t I have been asked first if I ever use apple jelly?

■ 12. Find an example of exaggeration that has occurred in print, on the Internet, on the radio, or on TV. (a) State the exaggerated claim, (b) explain why it is correct to call it "exaggerated," and (c) give the source of the claim (date, page number, program, channel, or other information needed to pinpoint the source).

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Solutions

4 Here are two commercials:

Mycene Shampoo! It's here. It's now. It's Mycene, and it's for you.
If you want him to be more of a man, you need to be more of a woman. Bushwhack Perfume. For the man in your life.

Creating a commercial of the form "Famous people use it, so you should, too" is giving a reason and so is an inappropriate answer.

8 The loaded language is capitalized: The spokeswoman for the PRO-ABORTION group BLATANTLY ADMITTED today that the mother of the UNBORN CHILD can MURDER the CHILD if she "chooses." Calling the fetus a "child" loads the description because a central point of disagreement is whether the fetus is or is not morally equivalent to a child. The label pro-abortion is a term with negative connotations. Members of the group would not agree that they are pro-abortion; they say they are prochoice, not pro-abortion. A more objective (that is, fair) way of reporting would be: The spokeswoman for the group said today that the woman who carries a fetus should have the option of an abortion if she chooses

10 Answer (e)

11 Answer (b)

12 Here is one answer: (a) "Safari [perfume] by Ralph Lauren. A world without boundaries. A world of romance and elegance. A personal adventure and a way of life." (b) They are overstating what this perfume will do for you. It's just a chemical that smells good. You cannot reasonably expect to use it as a principal path to romance, elegance, adventure, and a way of life, (c) Source: Glamour Magazine, May 1991, p. 79. An exaggeration is an overstatement that contains a kernel of truth. An exaggerated claim is false, but not all false claims are exaggerations. For example, a headline that says, "World War II bomber found intact on moon" is false; it is not exaggerated.