One of the best ways to advertise your business is to emphasize the positive differences that you have with your closest competitors. For example, Apple tends to emphasize that its products are both aesthetically-appealing and easy-to-use. This is supposed to contrast the stereotypical experience that someone would have with a Windows product, for example, which is portrayed as convoluted and buggy by comparison.

There’s nothing wrong with taking this kind of strategy for your company, but you have to go about it in the right way. You may have noticed a Wendy’s commercial recently that emphasizes the fact that Wendy’s burgers are made from fresh meat. The burger patties are never frozen, offering you fresher taste and quality. That’s all well and good, but they try to appeal to our logic as well and that’s where the argument falls apart.

In the ad (and I’m paraphrasing), the voice-over asks, “If burgers were meant to be frozen, wouldn’t cows come from Antarctica?” This argument doesn’t make any sense, because couldn’t you use the same logic and ask questions like:

- If burgers were meant to be made of ground beef, wouldn’t cows come pre-ground?
- If burgers were meant to be cooked, wouldn’t cows contain only cooked meat?
- If burgers were meant to have garnishes, wouldn’t cows have lettuce growing out of their heads?

The list can go on and on. If you’re going to use logic in your marketing materials and advertising, at least make sure that it’s logical.