Argument EssayThe following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company."According to a recent report from our marketing department, during the past year, fewer people attended Super Screen-produced movi

In this argument, the Advising Director of Super Screen Movie Production Company (SSMPC), claims that in the past year, the movies produced by his production company has seen fewer viewers compared to any other years inspite of increase in number of good reviews from movie-goers. He attributes this to "word of mouth" not reaching to the masses. Based on these claims and possible causes, he is making the recommendation to allocate more funds to advertising campaigns to publicize the movies before their release. Even though advising director's recommendation seems to be the best interests of the company, the company's budget committee should first analyze the claims and evidences presented by the director before accepting his recommendation. His reasnoning, as it stands, is not persuasive and is rife of several unstated assumptions and devoid of any concrete evidence.

Firstly, in the marketing report, there is no mention of exact reason for the fewer attendances of viewers in the past year compared to other years. The marketing department need to analyze the reasons behind less number of viewers in the past year. Has there been any change in the kinds of movies the production company produces? Or has there been any shift in the trends of movie goers' likes and dislikes? Company needs to conduct a survey to find out the likings of the current movie goers. It can not assume that the movie goers will like the same kind of movies they liked a few years back. Furthermore, the exact difference in number of movie goers needs to be known in order to take a major irreversible step. If the difference is not much compared to previous years, the whole argument and its analysis goes for a toss. So concrete data is required before taking any drastic measure.

Secondly, the director claims that the number of positive reviews have actually increased from the previous years. But, again, there is no mention of any numbers supporting this claim. How many reviews are there in total? What is the break-up of good reviews and bad reviews? If both reviews have increased with bad reviews taking the lead compared to previous year, the decrease in number of viewers is expected. Also, the reviews of general public and critics need to be segregated in order to judge the quality of movie. If the professional critics have given bad ratings and reviews of the movies, it is understandable that the movie goers will not go to the movie because they rely on these professional critics to find out whether the movie is good or bad.

Thirdly, the director claims that, based on the reviews of the movie goers, their movies are good. Has there been any rewards won by the movies produced by the production company? There is no substantial proof supporting this claim. Has the movies won or even nominated for any of the prestigious rewards? We can not state that the movie is good or bad only based on reviews of movie goers most of whom may be a casual movie watcher. So the director needs to substantiate this claim with some concrete proof instead of just deducing this from some reviews.

In the end, I would like to reiterate that the advising director's recommendation is based on fallacious reasoning and insufficient data: the statistical data and distribution about movie goers to their movies over the years, percentage of reviews by professional critics in the total reviews, any data or report showing any awards won by the movies, and lacks any concrete evidence: any survey conducted by company or any third party. The company needs to hire a third party to conduct a survey about the current likes and dislikes of the movie goers about the kind of movies they would want to watch. So company should not accept the director's recommendation as it stands.