Critical Thinking Assignment: Persuasion

Copy and paste the example into the body of a forum message and include your response to this question: Why does the example affect you, and what is the statement’s persuasive motive?

Open this envelope and you’ll get a check for three million dollars, if your name appears on our list of winners.

This example affects me because this is a classic example of the “read the fine print.” While the catch phrase “…if your name appears on our list of winners” is not literally in small print, the intent is the same. Reading is a progression of left to right, top to bottom; the authors want you to be so excited about reading the phrase “Open this envelope and you’ll get a check for three million dollars” that the last phrase with the stipulation will go right over your head and not even be recognized. This is a ploy that is used in a lot of online pop-up ads and other mailers that you get in the physical mail.

The reason this ad affects me is because it plays on the emotion and rash decisions that people as a whole make. “Wow you mean that I do not have to save up and save for a house with a down payment?! I can just start making payments now and pay 21%?! Wow great; sign me up!” People seem to focus on the carrot at the end of the stick without realizing how far they have to walk to finally get it. In this specific situation, the reader most likely opens the envelope and sees a list of names, then rereads the stipulation, sends in $20 to get their name put on a list, and then receives another envelope without their name on it.