Objective:

Students will be able to identify different fallacies and how they are used in advertisements. This will also show students that they aren't the only ones who can get away with stretching the truth.

Pre-set Activity:

The teacher reflect on the previous days lesson about evidence as a way of building credibility. When we try to apply the tests of evidence it can be hard because people sometimes try to use tactics that mislead us. Some common tactics are to use fallacies. Fallacies are nontruths that sound true. We may think that we can tell when we are being lied to (the survey results might be useful in this case if lots of people said they lied, but were never lied to).

Activity: Play the fact or crap game with students. This game will show how hard it is to know whether people are telling the truth or not. Usually the truth is weirder than lies are.

Lesson: Different kinds of fallacies, subliminal, and sexual messages.
 

False Analogy - Compares two things that are not alike in significant respects or have critical points of difference. (We should not teach socialism in the university any more than we should teach arson).

Non Sequitur - A claim that is irrelevant to or unsupported by the evidence that is supposedly supporting it. (Plea bargaining affects many people. Last year there were 2,356 burglaries, 18 rapes, 65 robberies).

Begging the Question - Using the very thing in question as evidence. (The soul is immortal because it lives forever).

Hasty Generalization - Making general conclusions about something based on too few examples. (I had an Epson printer and it broke after a few weeks, Epson printers are not any good).

Post Hoc - Assuming that because two events are associated in time, one event caused the other.

Ad Hominem - A personal attack to avoid the issue. (Who would want a president that wears green suspenders).

Ad Populum - The "everyone else is doing it" argument.

The Straw Man Argument - Setting up a weak argument then saying that is the oppositions argument.

Undistributed Middle - Guilty by association. ( Frederick hangs out with those kids that smoke, so Frederick must smoke too).

Hazy Claim - Confuse the audience so they follow you to be on the safe side. (Yogurt may not make you live as long as Soviet Georgians. But it couldn't hurt).

The Magic Ingredient Claim - Calling attention to an ingredient or ddevice that is suppose to make the product better then others. (Noxzema's Acne 12).

The Advantage Claim - A claim that seems to offer some advantage to a product. (Mother's noodles are made from 100% semolina wheat-but so are all the other brands).

Appeal to Tradition - Should continue to do something or use something because we always have.

Slippery Slope - Assuming without evidence that a given event is the first in a series of steps that will lead inevitably to some outcome. (If you do this, then this will happen which will lead to another thing).

Weasel Words - Word that let a source weasel their way out of a promise. ( Helps, Like, Virtually).

Activity: Have students complete the cause and effect guide.
 

Reflection: Have students search through magazines for advertisements that have some of the fallacies in them. Have the students glue the advertisement to construction paper and write what fallacy the ad is using.