i think E is the correct answer on this one

because it might be possible that the figures ( as in our example) for one company might not reflect the status of the industry

this looks like an LSAT question to me
_________________

The world is continuous, but the mind is discrete

IMO its C

the conclusion is based on cig. promotion and a company will only promote its cigarette. so the best criticism would be if people are smoking more than one brand at a time than its a waste of money to promote its cig.

Let me try and explain this to you.

Surveys show that every year only 10 percent of cigarette smokers switch brands. Yet the manufacturers have been spending an amount equal to 10 percent of their gross receipts on cigarette promotion in magazines. It follows from these figures that inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay, and that cigarette companies would have been no worse off economically if they had dropped their advertising.

Of the following, the best criticism of the conclusion that inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay is that the conclusion is based on
(A) computing advertising costs as a percentage of gross receipts, not of overall costs
(B) past patterns of smoking and may not carry over to the future
(C) the assumption that each smoker is loyal to a single brand of cigarettes at any one time
(D) the assumption that each manufacturer produces only one brand of cigarettes
(E) figures for the cigarette industry as a whole and may not hold for a particular company

Break this down.

Conclusion : Inducing cigarette smokers to switch brands did not pay dividends.

Evidence 1 : Surveys show that every year only 10 percent of cigarette smokers switch brands.
Evidence 2 : Cigarette companies would have been no worse off economically if they had dropped their advertising.

What really links the evidence to the conclusion?

1. That the surveys are accurate and that they can be generalised.
2. The companies sales are dependent on the survey(no matter what the company does).

What can turn this around??

Option 1 : Surveys are not accurate
Option 2: Companies sales are not dependent on the survey and they can influence customers to change brands by different strategies.

Option 1 is not there in the answer choices
Option 2 is what E talks about...hence E.

C was close (if 'at any one time' was not present in the answer choice), what it does is weakens what the survey tries to prove, and thus strengthens option 1.

Paraphrasing the argument:
Inspite of spending large amounts of money, only 10% switched brands. (in the entire industry)
So, why to spend so much money when you see only 10% results?

Sounds reasonable. But there is a problem.

Lets say the entire smoking industry consists of 2 companies A and B with 50 customers each.
And each company spends money to make customers switch the brand.
So total industry smokers = 100.

After 1 year, lets say 10 smokers from A switched to B.
So, A = 40, B = 60. So we can say in the entire industry, 10 % swithced the brand.
BUT, lets see what B's CEO thinks. TO him, the increase is 20%. ( last year = 50, this year = 60, percentage of increase = 20).
And if you tell him "why to spend so much money when you see only 10% results?" he will not accept it.Because he is seeing good results.
But at the same time, A's CEO may accept the above statement.

So now, the fact(10% swithched brands) which is true to the entire industry is NOT true to the company B. (due to +ve change)

And thats exactly what option E is saying.
nice question. +1 to you.

The CR is based on a simple concept- One company's loss is another company's Gain

The author is assuming that spending 10% of gross receipts to induce 10% of cigarette smokers switch brands is not worth the money.

A statement that will prove the assumption is flawed will criticze the conclusion.

E

I am not vouching for author here. My sole intent was to understand this CR. I just used "author" to refer to the paragraph.

Thanks to all the explanations above. They helped a lot.

Its a clear E

got confused between C and E but after the reasoning given above, would go with E

this clears it up for me. i would've never thought of this reasoning. thanks

pretty complicated for me
CR are the toughest section for me