To suit the needs of corporate clients

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct65% picked this

   The usefulness of an advertising campaign is based solely on the degree to which the campaign’s

   Why this is right

   Since this is such an extreme claim, it's very easy to argue against. Does the passage provide any support for the idea that, "The usefulness of an ad campaign can go beyond its mere ability to persuade an audience?" Sure! In the case of these political campaigns and ad campaigns, their hoping to make an ad campaign controversial enough that they get some free publicity out of people discussing the ad. This shows that the usefulness of an ad isn't solely its ability to persuade audiences. It can also be useful as a vehicle for getting some free promotion.

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

   65%
2. B

   Compatible12% picked this

   Only a small percentage of eligible voters admit to being influenced by advertising campaigns in

   To undermine this claim, we would need to argue that "a significant percentage of eligible voters admit that they are influenced by ad campaigns, when it comes to deciding whom to vote for". Do we have any support for that claim? No. We have no information about what proportion of a political campaign ad's audience finds the message influential.

   12%
3. C

   Compatible10% picked this

   Campaign managers have transformed political campaigns by making increasing use of strategies borrowed from

   To undermine this claim, we would need to argue that "campaign managers have NOT transformed political campaigns by making more use of strategies borrowed ad campaigns". We don't have any way to support that claim. We never even talked about campaign managers, so we have no idea whether they have or haven't transformed campaigns or in what ways. This answer might be tempting because the paragraph contained an example of campaign that started in politics and was borrowed for corporate advertising (whereas this answer talks about something starting in corporate advertising and getting borrowed for politics). But just because there's a switch there doesn't mean that the stimulus goes against anything this answer is saying. It doesn't go with it, but it doesn't go against it. The claim that "feeling happy makes John buy roses" does not undermine the claim that "Robin bought roses to make someone feel happy". Even though the cause/effect relationship of feeling happy and buying roses is reversed, it's not like one claim undermined the other.

   10%
4. D

   Strengthens6% picked this

   Corporations are typically more concerned with maintaining public recognition of the corporate name than with enhancing

   To undermine this claim, we would need to argue that "corporations are usually more concerned with goodwill than with name recognition". We have no support for that. In fact, the passage supports the opposite (it supports the answer choice itself). In choosing to air a controversial ad (which will get criticized by some) in order to get some free publicity, we can surmise that corporations care more about the publicity / more about maintaining public recognition than they do about the controversy / backlash, which could diminish goodwill toward the corporation.

   6%
5. E

   Compatible7% picked this

   Advertising agencies that specialize in campaigns for corporate clients are not usually chosen

   To undermine this claim, we would need to argue that "ad agencies that specialize in corporate clients ARE usually chosen for political campaigns". In this passage, we know that ad agencies are adapting a strategy originally developed for political campaigns, but we don't know if the people who originally developed the strategy worked for a corporate ad agency. Since we have no information about whether ad agencies are / aren't hired by political campaigns, we have no way to undermine this answer.

   7%