fallacy

This is an advertisement for milk that was found on the internet. In white print, it says, “Power up! Want to grow? The calcium in milk helps your bones grow. Momma Mia!” The ad shows Mario, a very famous game character of Nintendo who is well-known amongst young kids. He is supposedly enlarged, breaking out of the television as he his holding onto a bottle of milk. The room is dark and messy, depicting that it may belong to a boy who loves to play games rather than clean his room. This advertisement contains few fallacies.

First of all, Milk and Nintendo games do no have any connection with each other. Growth of Mario is not related in any way with the product, yet the ad seems to claim that Mario grows bigger, and milk can help one grow, thus kids should drink milk to grow like Mario. This is a false analogy. The ad is comparing and making two different types of growth to be similar. Mario is a game character, and his growth is most likely caused by some sort of magic that only exists within the game. However, the ad claims that their product, or milk, will help kids grow and make their bones stronger like Mario

Another fallacy that can be found in the ad is appeal to popularity. The advertisement uses a popular game character that is familiarized amongst young kids in order to make drinking milk part of their habit. Just because a famous icon like Mario is representing a product, that doesn’t mean that the milk will help a child grow like him.