Marketing buzzwords

[Doomriser]

Nobody seems to know. Even Graham Kennedy, oh he of many numbers and little evidence, admitted it just looks like they changed the color.

http://daltonator.net/fuq/search.php?au ... 5to%25blue

From a fairly long time ago, IIRC just after the Star Trek TMs were revealed as pure conjecture.

I remember that. The only problem is that the quote is from a time when whether a quantum torpedo was 3x more powerful than a photon torpedo actually mattered...

[Durandal]

Actually, the one Simpsons episode that best applies here is when Homer goes to Clown College and becomes a target for the Mafia because they mistake him for Krusty. When Homer is at a car dealership claiming to be Krusty and demanding a free car because he is famous, Mafia hitmen fire upon him and miss, hitting the hood of the car while Homer is talking to the salesman. Homer sees the bullet holes in the hood and asks, "What are all these little holes?" The salesman cooly replies, "Those are speed holes. They make the car go faster."

When Homer gets back to his house, he takes a pick axe to his car's hood and starts giving it "speed holes." :)

As to the type of fallacy, "style over substance" generally refers to an actual argument. One person will claim that the other's argument is wrong because it is insult-laden, rudely-written or contains harsh language.

Also, when I worked at CompUSA, Creative had the brilliant idea to market their modems as "MP3 Compatible." When I saw this for the first time, I nearly pissed myself laughing, as did the rest of the sales staff. It's like every other modem on the market has some sort of deficiency which prevents it from downloading MP3's. The sad part is that most people are so computer illiterate that they would probably eat the bullshit right up.

There are plenty of possible names for such a buzzword fallacy, one being "the buzzword fallacy," but that's not too creative. Let's think of some more.

This type of argument hinges on drawing the consumer away from actual performance and toward cool-sounding buzzwords. So, it basically uses big, flashing lights to draw attention to pointless "features."

I can't really think of any decent-sounding names, right now, but maybe others can based on the grounds I have provided.

[Doomriser]

The "speed holes" fallacy! I love it! See, that's an advantage that a Trek ship would have after encountering an ISD. In fact, it's especially relevant because usually the so called Treknology advantage is actually a disadvantage!

"Oh, ISD's don't have frequency-based shields." Yeah, it doesn't have the built-in vulnerability that Trek ships do. It doesn't have the "speed holes."

[Darth Yoshi]

The "speed holes" fallacy! I love it! See, that's an advantage that a Trek ship would have after encountering an ISD. In fact, it's especially relevant because usually the so called Treknology advantage is actually a disadvantage!

"Oh, ISD's don't have frequency-based shields." Yeah, it doesn't have the built-in vulnerability that Trek ships do. It doesn't have the "speed holes."

ROFL!

[Peregrin Toker]

Another case of Marketing Buzzwords was in the 1960s, when Chrysler claimed that their engines were superior because they had hemispheric combustion chambers. They did indeed produce some powerful engines in the latter sixties (such as a 7,0 litre V-8 with 425 horsepower*), but the truth is that almost all gasoline-powered cars have engines with hemispheric combustion chambers. Well, it might have been a new thing back in the sixties, but today we're taking it for granted.

*Is it just me, or do most american cars have very big engines for their size, when compared to European, Korean or Japanese peers??