posting #1

Appealing to emotion is a very dangerous thing that many advertisers and politicians engage in. Not only is it used formally, like in ads and speeches, it is also used socially, in day to day conversations with others. Appealing to emotion trys to take a feeling that someone has, and get that person to make a decision or believe something as a result of that feeling. Sometimes, the belief is relevant to the feeling, but in cases we are analyzing in this class, it is being used unethically. The belief has very little to no connection with the emotion. For example a method of appealing to emotion is referred to as appeal to fear. Appeal to fear tries to get one to connect a fear with a belief/decision. It could be used as a sales lure, for example because there have been robberies in your neighborhood, you should buy our new ULTRA alarm system” or in social situations “If you do not walk me to my car, I will get lost and get hurt”. While these arguments are somewhat related to the fear, there are some that have almost no connection at all. In the textbook on page 192, there is a great political ad. It presents the reader with crime stats, but then adds a potential Senators name at the bottom. There is no given connection between the election and the neighborhood crime. The campaign team want be implying that the candidate will strive to reduce neighborhood crime, but this is a very sneaky way to do it. By doing this the potential candidate is making no promises and in no way even stating that he/she will even make it a priority. The very intimidating detains in the ad appeal to the readers fear, so that they will want to vote for the candidate.