Consumer advocate: Businesses are typically motivated primarily by the desire to make as great a profit as possible, and advertising helps businesses to achieve this goal. But it is clear that the motive of maximizing profits does not impel businesses to present accurate information in their advertisements. It follows that consumers should be skeptical of the claims made in advertisements.
Summarize Argument
Consumers should be critical of what advertisements say. This is because advertising helps businesses fulfill their profit-generating goals, and these goals do not require presenting accurate information.
Notable Assumptions
The advocate assumes that just because the goal of generating profit does not motivate businesses to present accurate information in their ads, there is no other factor that does.
A
Businesses know that they can usually maximize their profits by using inaccurate information in their advertisements.
This strengthens the argument. It reinforces the premises by noting that businesses are aware that deception in advertisements can lead to larger profits, and we already know that businesses are motivated primarily to maximize profit.
B
Businesses have often included inaccurate information in their advertisements.
This strengthens the argument. It reinforces the conclusion that consumers should be skeptical of advertisements’ claims, as businesses have been shown to present false information in their ads.
C
Many consumers have a cynical attitude toward advertising.
This does not affect the argument. Whether or not consumers are already skeptical of advertisements is not relevant to the advocate’s argument, which is about whether consumers should be skeptical of the claims made in advertisements.
D
Those who create advertisements are less concerned with the accuracy than with the creativity of advertisements.
This strengthens the argument. (D) says that accuracy is not the biggest priority for those developing ads, which suggests that accuracy could be compromised in favor of creativity. This strengthens the conclusion that consumers should be skeptical of the claims made in ads.
E
The laws regulating truth in advertising are not applicable to many of the most common forms of inaccurate advertising.
This strengthens the argument. It suggests that current laws are insufficient to protect consumers from inaccurate claims in advertising. Thus, consumers should be skeptical of advertisements’ claims.
A
The use of superconductors will never be economically feasible.
B
If the alloys of niobium and germanium do not superconduct at temperatures above minus 148 degrees Celsius, then there are other substances that will do so.
C
The use of superconductors could be economically feasible if there is a substance that superconducts at temperatures below minus 148 degrees Celsius.
D
Alloys of niobium and germanium do not superconduct at temperatures below minus 160 degrees Celsius.
E
No use of alloys of niobium and germanium will ever be economically feasible.