Fallacies from Obama and McCain

Here are a few fallacies and propaganda techniques we found in recent campaign TV commercials.

Obama Ad “Seven?”

McCain Ad “Can Obama Lead?”

Both of these commercials use the technique of taking words out of context. Senator McCain’s comment that “. . . the fundamentals of our economy are strong . . .” is used to imply that McCain thinks the economy is healthy. In the second video, Senator Obama says he agrees with some of McCain’s statements, but this does not imply that he agrees with McCain’s positions on issues, and therefore is not a good leader. Both of these TV commercials take words out of context.

McCain Ad “Do You Know Enough about Obama?”

Obama Ad “McCain’s Spiritual Guide”

These two commercials use “guilt by association” which is a type of ad hominem fallacy. The candidate is shown next to someone we are told is bad. In both cases, it is not clear what relationship the candidate still has with this “bad person” and whether their friendship - if it is a friendship - will impact their ability to lead today.

Your Turn!

What propaganda technique is used in the following two commercials? This one should be easy!

McCain Ad “Man in the Arena”

Obama Ad “James Taylor for Obama”

Can you describe the techniques used in this commercial? What are they trying to get us to feel?

“I Am Joe”

To learn more about fallacies and propaganda techniques, visit http://www.fallacydetective.com/articles/read/short-list-of-fallacies/

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1 • Carly • October 25, 2008 • 12:25 PM

The first two use the Transfer tactic to get us to feel good about voting a certain way.

“I am Joe” uses several tactics. (1) Bandwagon- lots of people feel this way, so should you.  (2) Appeal to Fear- Obama will take your money away and give it to someone else. (3) Repetition- many people saying essentially the same thing, “vote for McCain” (4)Appeal to the People- we should vote for McCain because many other people are doing so.

2 • Jeannon Kralj • October 25, 2008 • 1:41 PM

Man in the Arena—John McCain - Appeal to Tradition - John McCain wants us to associate him and his words of courage and perseverance with the same rhetoric of his “forerunners” of abour 75 years ago of Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosefelt

James Taylor for Obama - Faulty appeal to authority - Somehow a well known muscician and singer who loves and lives in North Carolina and is “goin to Carolina in my mind” is supposed to be able to make us believe that Obama is is the way to save this country.  Interesting Taylor never mentioned verbally the person his ad was about, only mentioned at end in print.

Joe the Plumber - Transfer - We are supposed to believe that all those “ordinatry folk” of various walks of life in the video are just like (transfer) Joe the Plumber who gained his 3 minutes of fame by speaking to McCain at a recent public gathering.  Just common ordinary people of America all for McCain.

3 • steve • October 26, 2008 • 11:24 PM

that ad about ayers isn’t wrong since its true and we need to get the word out before we elect a terrorist

4 • Hans Bluedorn • October 27, 2008 • 2:12 PM

Jeannon is correct.

The first ad is an appeal to tradition.

The second one is a faulty appeal to authority (singers have no special knowlege on who would be a better leader).

However, I think the Joe the Plumber ad is more of a bandwagon technique—“join us and vote for McCain.”

5 • Donald H • December 26, 2008 • 11:39 PM

I found myself in agreement with Jeannon. I do have an interesting question regarding the Rod Parsley Ad by the Obama camp.

I believe there was definitely a transfer fallacy in an appeal to the thought opposing Isalm was bad, although there were true statements about Isalm made.

I agree with the comments you made regarding the commercial with Parsley.

But wasn’t the Obama camp equally in error for using a pastoral associate? Both men teach heresy, so that’s not ad hominem?

The Ayers ad also may be about fear, but there some truth statements involved. How much of a fallacy is there in that.

6 • Allison • April 20, 2009 • 2:46 PM

Ayers ad - guilt by association

7 • Jeannon Kralj • April 23, 2009 • 8:57 AM

Manipulation of people’s thoughts and tastes is never done by employment of logical fallacies alone.  There is always some truth mixed in that makes the WHOLE acceptable. I communicated with a Ph.D. philosophy professor for some time and noticed that many of his emails to me contained numerous logical fallacies, and he wrote several books about logic. It is very good to learn clear thinking and communication skills because we are, I believe, to be obedient to our Creator by using our God given faculties of intellect and free will to His glory. We humans seem only to want to manipulate and deceive each other.  Only when we love God with all our heart and soul can we possibly move away from using logical fallacies in our communication with others. I believe one can only be truly “intelligent” and “logical” when one’s intellect is informed by the Holy Spirit. The advertisements and mainstream media drivel serves up to us is simply sophisticated lies employing subtle logical fallacies and not-so-subtle logic breaches to control us.

8 • Melissa Snitko • January 27, 2010 • 1:22 AM

Do you have a Ron Paul ad with some type of fallacy in it?
Just curious. 😊

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