Propaganda in Advertising/PR

All aboard the bandwagon!

I chose to run the product page for the iPhone on the Apple homepage. Right off the bat, the website hits the browser with a strong tagline.

TAGLINE 

"Loving it is easy. That's why so many people do."

TRANSLATION 

"Oh god please love me. Everybody else does. Please love me."

This particular phrasing seeks to appeal to the bandwagon effect, in that it appeals to our innate desire for conformity. While it is commonly said that everybody seeks to be unique, the truth remains that most people don't like standing out either. Everybody prefers to jump on the new fad than to create their own. The latter simply has too much risk involved.

For the record, the above fallacy is argumentum ad populum.

Love comes in many forms. Like HD resolution. 

A few slides to the right, the website presents another lovely tagline.

TAGLINE

"The camera you love now shoots in panorama."

TRANSLATION

"Don't you care about the things you love (eg. family, friends, the iSight camera, etc)?"

This is an example of loaded language, where the writer makes assumptions about the reader. Most of the people visiting the page probably don't know anything about the specifications of the camera, so how can they already love it? The writer appeals to the human nature to the things we love improve, like a parent watching their child accomplish something. Always fun stuff.

There's quite a few other examples, but I'll leave it with these two. The page can be visited here.