How Does Nick Naylor Use Fallacies In Thank You For Smoking

In the film “Thank You for Smoking,” Nick Naylor works as the speaker of the tobacco industry. In the movie, his job is to convince the public that tobacco does not harm someone’s health. Although a lot of people hate Nick he manages to use fallacies and rhetorical strategies to back up his arguments. Nick has a confidence that can intimidate anyone which is why so many people end up believing him even though he might be wrong.

Throughout the whole movie, Nick uses fallacies to prove his point. For example when Nick went to the Jenny Jones show in the beginning he used different fallacies. Nick decided to talk about Robin Williger, the cancer boy, Nick said, “the Ron Goodes of this world... [wants] the Robin Willigers to die… So that their

There were a lot of rhetorical strategies that were used in this movie, like pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos was used when Nick wanted to grab the audience’s attention to inform them that his company did care about the health. Nick told the audience that “the number 1 killer in America is cholesterol, and here comes Senator Finisterre who's clogging the nation's arteries with Vermont cheddar cheese”. Nick decided to mention this so he can prove that tobacco is not the enemy and that they should focus on cholesterol instead. This pathos helps Nick gain the audience's trust because it made them believe that he does know what he is talking about and is aware of other problems. In “Thank You for Smoking” pathos is also showed with Nick and Joey’s relationship. Nick seems to really care for his son and does not want to lose him since they no longer live together. At the end, Joey is the only one that was able to bring Nick back and to not give up. Logos is also used in this movie, Nick uses it to win arguments. For example when he argues that cigarettes don’t need a skull in the boxes because people already know that they are bad. Nick believes that the cigarettes don’t need to have a label that marks them as harmful because it’s something logical. And even if it’s for the teens, that it’s still not necessary because it’s the parents job to inform them about what’s harmful and what’s not. At last, ethos is also used when Nick testifies in front of the congressional committee. Nick went up as a father and supported tobacco. He knew that they were going to question him about his son, and he spoke of the topic freely. Nick might not be the perfect father image, but he had some fallacies to back up his