The Casino "Fantasy Springs" uses "where winners play" as their motto. This is an "appeal to popularity" logical fallacy. It is designed to make people think that if they go to this casino they are a "winner" or that other people will think that they are a winner. I have never left there with any of the money I brought, let alone their money. I am pretty sure that this would qualify me as a "loser" and not a "winner"; hence, a place where loser's also play.
1. Find a statement or presentation that strikes you as mistaken or misleading. "Where winners play"
2. Figure out what it says, implies, or otherwise means. This amounts to doing something like a Toulmin analysis.
a) What's the real claim? Winners go to this casino to gamble.
i)What visual or auditory clues does it have? None that I can see.
ii) What's stated? Where winners play
iii) What's implied? If you want to be a winner you should play here, or - if you consider yourself a winner you play here.
iv) How are these qualified? Not qualified
b) What are the reasons? None stated. This slogan is also a play on words - the casino using the term "winner" gives a person hope that they might win if they play at this particular casino.
For instance, at some level, every ad says "Buy our product." But what will become interesting is why one supposedly should buy. Sometimes the reasoning is faulty.
c) The reasons should be supported by some kind of grounding. Sometimes the grounding is incorrect. I am not sure how "grounding" would apply to this particular fallacy.
d) The grounding needs to properly warrant the reasons that support the claim. If the logic between them does not work, that's a problem. Again, I don't understand the grounding concept.
3. Decide what part of the media-object's argument you object to. That in order to be a winner you need to play at this casino.
4. Figure out why you object. How is the argument badly formed. A lot of people lose money at casinos, yet they still go here to play. This casino is a place winners and losers both go to play.
5. Explain your objection and why the object is malformed. I think I did that in the thought above.
1 comment:
Fallacy Springs
I don't mean that you need to include the entire outline of steps every time you submit a fallacy, but this looks like an interesting display of process here.
Yes, this can be seen as an appeal to popularity. That's interesting, because I take the ad differently, and I think you may have the more accurate reading of it.
There seems to be a play on the meanings of "winner" -- one who's popular, who has a good life, who "gets the girl" or whatever; or, alternately, one who actually wins some contest, like a bet. I have not studied the psychology of gamblers, but my superficial exposure makes me suspect that they might tend to run these two concepts together.
Along those lines, I would say yes, appeal to popularity, and Sharky's quite correct here.
But might there not also be some unspoken promise that one may win one's bet? If so, there is another fallacy in the air.
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