Advertising tends to have

Answer choices

1. A

   Deepens the Paradox5% picked this

   There has recently been increased demand at LargeCo stores for the chain's own brand of yogurt as well as

   If there's a yogurt buying bonanza going down, then we're even more confused why milk sales are beating yogurt sales.

   5%
2. B

   Irrelevant Distinction22% picked this

   The typical shopper going to LargeCo for the purpose of buying milk does not go with the intention

   It doesn't impact this conversation one way or the other, whether people buy milk and yogurt at the same time, different times, whether some just buy milk and some just buy yogurt. None of the particulars of how they usually do or don't procure their milk or yogurt help us explain why milk sales have gone up more than yogurt sales.

   22%
3. C

   No Distinction9% picked this

   Shoppers at LargeCo tend to purchase the chain's own brand of dairy products more frequently than other

   This answer makes a distinction between LargeCo dairy and other companies' diary. We need a distinction between LargeCo's milk and LargeCo's yogurt.

   9%
4. D

   Correct54% picked this

   Supermarkets throughout the entire nation have experienced a sharp decrease in sales

   Why this is right

   Here, we have a way to explain why milk sales increased more than yogurt sales: yogurt sales are experiencing a steep, nationwide decrease right now. Milk isn't, so the new ads boosted milk sales a bunch. Yogurt was starting out from a negative, with headwinds pushing it down (the national decrease), so if sales went up even some, that's a huge victory for the ads! This answer probably doesn't appeal to people because it is not contained within the bubble of LargeCo and its shoppers, but all we're looking for is an explanatory mechanism. A correct answer should fit into this sentence: Even though ads do more for yogurt than for milk, following the recent ads, milk sales are higher than yogurt sales because [answer choice]. ... because yogurt sales are down a ton nationwide.

   Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   54%
5. E

   Unclear Impact / Too Weak11% picked this

   Consumers tend to purchase store brands of yogurt, but purchase whichever brand of milk

   This seems like maybe we could say, "yogurt sales didn't change much, because customers were already buying the store brand of yogurt, whereas customers just buy whichever milk is least expensive". I don't know about your grocery store, but at every grocery store I've ever shopped at, the store brand is the least expensive brand (of basically everything ... soda / pasta / milk / yogurt / aspirin / etc.) So it's not clear that this answer even offers a distinction between LargeCo's yogurt and milk, thus this might not have any power to explain why there have been more sales of milk than yogurt, following the ads. This definitely doesn't have the conclusive punch that (D) has, with its steep, nationwide decrease of yogurt sales.

   11%