One of the most recent Appeal to Fear ads that I have seen recently were the campaign ads of the recent election. One ad in particular caught my eye which was an ad called "Polygraph" by the Jerry Brown campaign. The ad accuses Meg Whitman of being dishonest about voting, residency, and changing stories about an abused employee. It also accuses her of false advertising and her hometown newspaper saying she is "a loose relationship with the truth". The ad wants you to vote for Jerry Brown for governor. This is showing appeal to fear because if you vote for her you will vote for a liar. People fear liars especially if they're running for a government position. This is a bad argument because its only reason to vote for Brown is of fear of voting for a liar. It also shows you that lying is the only concern of the candidate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25EHHX2nUjU&feature=channel
Hi, I like how you came up your example for this concept. I also notice that most elections campaign uses appeal to fear to get people to vote. I also agree you that most uses of appeal to fear are bad arguments because it uses fear instead of good reasoning. Using fear toward people can not always be effective because it does not always give them a reason to vote for the candidates. For instance, if someone were to see this ad without knowing the two candidates he or she would only get facts about Meg Whitman. There is no reasons that were stated in this ad to voted for Brown, other than the facts that Meg Whitman is a liar. Anyway, this was great post and nice example of appeal to fear.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the electoral campaign for California governor between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown, both candidates were bashing each other and convincing their audiences that they are more trustworthy and reliable than the other. I agree with you that their advertisements use appeal to fear to gain votes and that it is effective in a sense that people would not want to vote for the untrustworthy candidate.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the candidate's using appeal to authority in their campaign advertisements does not really highlight the actual candidate per say and is not the most reliable source for a person to narrow down their decision, especially if the decision is because they don't want a liar for a governor, just as you and your advertisement have mentioned. It is just a mechanism to convince voters to disfavor the opposing candidate.