Bad Appeal to Authority

This concept is closely related to the success of advertising on the internet. In some cases, companies will utilize a celebrity to endorse a product or practice, hoping to connect with the fans of that particular person. Many will encourage the purchasing of a product by providing supportive testimonial and sharing personal stories that may be closely related to their audience. In other cases, marketers will use so-called medical personnel (dressed in lab coats) or industry experts (in manufacturing facilities) to visually lend credibility by providing supportive research statistics and explanation of the beneficial properties of said product. If that doesn’t work, there are always the ‘sincere testimonials’ of the product users who have tried various other products, but finally found success in the advertised product or practice. Advertisers are gambling on the marketing concept of Appeal to Authority, to influence consumers into accepting the claims of these authority figures because of their status.

In addition to advertising, there are celebrities who host their own shows and who champion a cause or practice because it follows with their line of belief. The danger as Esptein explains in the definition of Bad Appeal to Common Belief is, “It is usually a mistake to accept a claim as true solely because a lot of other people believe it.” Consumers and fans may be likely to follow a practice or purchase a product, because celebrity is considered reputable and his/her guest sounds educated and well-informed. And while some endorsers do not intend to mislead or have a personal agenda or motive, their lack of questioning authority may lead to a blind-faith following of others.