Errors in advertisingAccording to Bassham et al. (2002), a logical fallacy is “an argument that contains an error in reasoning” (p. 140). There are two types of logical fallacies: relevance fallacies and insufficient evidence fallacies. Relevance errors occur when the premises are not logically relevant to the conclusion. Insufficient evidence fallacies occur when the premises do not provide enough evidence to support the conclusion. Although there are several logical fallacies, four logical fallacies commonly found in advertising are amphibole, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, and non-sequitur. An amphibole is “an error of syntactic ambiguity deliberately misusing implications” (Master List, p. 1). . This occurs when the arguer misinterprets a statement that is grammatically ambiguous and then draws a conclusion based on this misinterpretation. An example of amphibolia is if someone says, "I shot the burglar in his pajamas." » One could interpret this sentence to mean that the burglar was wearing pajamas when he was shot, when the true meaning is that the shooter was wearing pajamas when he shot the burglar. The Sonicare Elite ad is a perfect example of amphibolia being used in advertising. The poster in the ad states, "Sonicare is used professionally by more U.S. dental professionals than any other brand of electric toothbrush" (www.optiva.com). This statement leads people to believe that Sonicare is used by the majority of all dentists, when in reality, Sonicare is only used by the majority of dentists surveyed by Optiva. Another pervasive fallacy in advertising is the appeal to authority. “An appeal to authority occurs when an arguer cites a witness or authority who, there is good reason to believe, is unreliable” (Bassham et al., 2002, p. 162). Donald Trump supports McDonalds, while Shaq supports Burger King. Sure, Donald Trump may be a business expert, and Shaq may be a basketball expert, but are either of them a fast food expert? Why should we buy products just because sports stars and famous people ask us to? Appeal to authority can also occur when the authority is a true expert on the subject, but has a bias favoring one side of the issue. For example, a doctor makes a commercial supporting a new herbal supplement designed to help people lose weight. Then you find out that the doctor works for the company that sells the herbal supplement..