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Celebrity Endorsement |
| Description: | ||
| The argument supports a position by citing the endorsement of someone who is well-known (famous). The person need not necessarily be an authority or expert, since the argument implies that the endorser's fame alone is sufficient to establish the truth of the position. | ||
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| Examples: | ||
| "Bill Cosby eats Jello Pudding. You'll love it too." | ||
| "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on television... " | ||
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| Discussion: | ||
| People generally become famous because they are good at
something. Some people manage to become famous merely because they look
good; but most people who become famous must have at least some talent. It
is not uncommon for people who become famous to be exceptionally talented.
Indeed, the distinction between celebrity and expertise is not always easy
to draw. Michael Jordon is certainly a celebrity, but he is also an expert
at playing basketball, and indeed he is famous for that very reason. Perhaps
it is not unreasonable to trust his judgment on the type of shoes that are
best suited for basketball. The fallacy of Celebrity Endorsement works when we confuse mere fame with acknowledged expertise. However, it must be remembered that even celebrities have a right to express their opinions, and to try to argue for those opinions in a rational manner. As always, arguments matter even if mere opinions do not. The fallacy of Celebrity Endorsement mimics good reasoning by pulling off a two-fold deception. It asks us, first, to confuse mere celebrity with genuine expertise, but it also asks us to accept a position on the basis of that (presumed) expertise alone, without a consideration of actual arguments. |
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| Classification: A Fallacy of Irrelevance (a deductive fallacy of soundness with a falsehood in the major premiss) in the personal Ad Verecundiam family. | ||
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| Source: Please contact me if you can point me to a potentially useful clue regarding the original source of this fallacy. | ||
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