Spotting bad science - guide

**mklotz** · Feb 11, 2023, 09:48 AM

It took me a while to puzzle out the Subaru ads. Instead of telling you anything about the car, they show pictures of dogs driving the car accompanied by voiceovers of "Dog tested; dog approved". They also tout all the money they've given to the ASPCA to save the poor puppies.

In our current brave new world it's important to be just like everyone else. Drive an electric SUV painted white, have the right style of crown molding, be tattooed, etc.. Most importantly, have a pet dog! Not just a pet; it has to be a dog.

So Subaru is not too subtly trying to attract you to their car by instilling the idea that your must-have pet will like it. Logically, it makes no sense, yet they've spent big bucks on making the ads. Regardless, the people who buy and make ads know what works; logic has nothing to do with it. The idea of allying your product to a social requirement forced on you by advertising, social media, talking heads, etc is a good one. Expect to see more of it.

Next time a car ad comes on, close your eyes and just listen closely to the audio. In many instances, you'll discover that, from the audio alone, you can't determine that the product they're selling is a car.

**ductape** · Feb 11, 2023, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by mklotz

It took me a while to puzzle out the Subaru ads. Instead of telling you anything about the car, they show pictures of dogs driving the car accompanied by voiceovers of "Dog tested; dog approved". They also tout all the money they've given to the ASPCA to save the poor puppies.

In our current brave new world it's important to be just like everyone else. Drive an electric SUV painted white, have the right style of crown molding, be tattooed, etc.. Most importantly, have a pet dog! Not just a pet; it has to be a dog.

So Subaru is not too subtly trying to attract you to their car by instilling the idea that your must-have pet will like it. Logically, it makes no sense, yet they've spent big bucks on making the ads. Regardless, the people who buy and make ads know what works; logic has nothing to do with it. The idea of allying your product to a social requirement forced on you by advertising, social media, talking heads, etc is a good one. Expect to see more of it.

Next time a car ad comes on, close your eyes and just listen closely to the audio. In many instances, you'll discover that, from the audio alone, you can't determine that the product they're selling is a car.

To your third paragraph, it's kind of like the ads where someone parks their new compact SUV/crossover/etc. directly on the beach then a bunch of ridiculously attractive friends jump out and pull surfboards out in semi-slow motion. Car makers have realized that they can make more money marketing it as a "lifestyle vehicle" rather than just something with four wheels and a few seats. It's one of the reasons why historically mundane vehicles like pickup trucks have become so expensive.

Car commercials from the late 70's and early 80's described nearly every feature as being "sporty", which doesn't really mean anything, but apparently worked with enough people to evolve into what is seen today.

**Jon** · Feb 17, 2023, 02:30 AM

Great recent example of how peer review is the new "studies show..."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs...90184221142218

**NeiljohnUK** · May 22, 2024, 10:23 AM

Working in 'science' I trust NOTHING in the media, and governments even less!

**CharlesWaugh** · May 22, 2024, 11:25 AM

RetractionWatch.com is a great resource exposing the issues in academic publishing.

One current headline:

"Wiley [a MAJOR publisher of scholarly journals] shuts 19 scholarly journals amid AI paper mill problems."
Here is a non-paywalled article about that: https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/...y_journals_ai/

And a pull-quote from that article:
"But the concern over scholarly research integrity isn't confined to Wiley publications. A study published in Nature [one of the top three scholarly journals in the world] last July suggests as many as a quarter of clinical trials are problematic or entirely fabricated."
[emphasis added]

**Hoosiersmoker** · May 22, 2024, 11:35 AM

Follow the money people doesn't matter if it's "science", religion, business, politics... it's all for the money grubbers. All of it is spun so some people can get rich, but especially science, religion, business, and politics!

**CharlesWaugh** · May 22, 2024, 11:48 AM

The rub is, in science, the outcomes are widespread (global) and horrendous.

It is seriously argued that the capture of healthcare by the equity firms is dramatically increassing the cost of health care in the US, driving the economy into the gutter, causing thousands of 'deaths of despair', concentrating wealth in an outrageous fashion, and is the driver of mass illness and deaths (both domestically and abroad).

Not to mention that it is virtually undisputed that the US engaged in gain-of-function research in coronavirus at the WIV and lied about it. Peter Daszak, a close confidant of Fauci and the head of EcoHealth Alliance (ECA) is being disbarred and the ECA is no longer a recipient of any HHS funding.