The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Silver Screen Movie Production Company.

"According to a recent report from our marketing department, fewer people attended movies produced by Silver Screen during the past year than in any other year. And yet the percentage of generally favorable comments by movie reviewers about specific Silver Screen movies actually increased during this period. Clearly, the contents of these reviews are not reaching enough of our prospective viewers; so the problem lies not with the quality of our movies but with the public's lack of awareness that movies of good quality are available. Silver Screen should therefore spend more of its budget next year on reaching the public through advertising and less on producing new movies."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------My argument:

The argument that the Silver Screen should spend more of its next year's budget on reaching the public through advertising and less on producing new movies is not entirely and logically convincing because it is based on a few unproven assumptions.

Firstly, the statement that very few people attended movies produced by Silver Screen during the past year than in any other year does not, by itself, imply that the same trend is going to continue in the present year. There must have been some valid reasons for this phenomenon, but the report does not even attempt to probe into such reasons. It is quite probable that the movies produced by Silver Screen last year did not cater to the tastes of the people.
Moreover, Silver Screen Productions may have had ventured to take movies by directors whose reputation with their previous movies was not so high.

Secondly, the flaw in the argument arises out of the non-quantification of the phrase 'fewer people' and 'percentage'. If the number of people who had attended the movies produced by Silver Screen movies was just fewer by mere 30 or 50 and the percentage increase of favorable comments by movie reviewers was just 3 or 4, it is not possible to agree with the advertising director’s conclusion. Moreover, the reviewer’s decision is influenced by the reputation of Production Company. If Silver Screen is the best production company in the country, then may be most of the reviewer's always vote in positive for its production.

Thirdly, even in spite of advertising about the good quality of movies the public may not turn up in huge proportions. The reasons may be that the major proportion of the country is not interested in the cast, director etc. of the movie.

For all the above reasons, the conclusion is not completely sound. The argument might have been strengthened if the report cities statistical information regarding the number of viewers per year watching Silver Screen production movies, the percentage increase of the comments of the movie reviewer’s per year, the type of movies directed by the company and the tastes of the public.