Critical Reasoning: Conclusion Weakening Questions

Creative director: We have been offered the venture of creating the advertising campaign for an extremist political party competing in the upcoming elections. It would be better for our advertising agency to refrain from accepting this project.

Account executive: I disagree. This is a great opportunity for our agency and will surely lead to improved business.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the account executive's objection to the creative director's position?

Incorrect.

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This answer choice supports the executive's objection whereas you are required to weaken it. Widespread attention is a good thing for an advertising agency. Therefore, if taking up the campaign will grant the agency widespread attention then the executive's objection is justified.

Incorrect.

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This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens the executive's objection. This statement merely says that before any big decision is made, the leaders of the different departments of a business should discuss it. The argument in this question is such a discussion, but that's irrelevant. Focus on your task.

Incorrect.

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This answer choice strengthens the executive's objection. According to this statement, campaigns have become very difficult to attain. Therefore, it follows that when offered with a campaign, an agency should accept it. Since accepting the campaign is what the executive wants, this answer choice does not weaken his position.

Incorrect.

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This answer choice strengthens the executive's position. If such a large portion of a political party's budget is spent on advertising, then creating a campaign for such a party is probably a very lucrative project. Our task, however, is to weaken the executive's position that accepting the campaign is the right thing to do.

Correct.

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This answer choice provides a reason why it may not be such a good idea to accept the campaign and, therefore, weakens the executive's objection. According to this answer choice, clients consider agencies according to the clients' relation to the agency's previous work. This means that in the future, the agency could lose clients if it chooses to go through with the extremists party project, as some clients may wish to avoid being associated with the party's views.

Corporate image being paramount to any business, an advertising agency may deter a client if its previous projects collide in some way with how that agency wishes to be perceived by the public.

Because political propaganda is targeted to such a wide audience, advertising agencies involved in creating such material benefit from widespread attention.

In advertising, questions of business strategy should be discussed between managerial persons of different professional backgrounds to create a complete foundation for analysis.

Due to the creation of the global business village, the advertising market has become even more competitive than it once was, making campaigns difficult to attain.

On average, a political party spends 72% of its budget on advertising media and an additional 11% on public relations personnel.