Consumer advocate: One advertisement that is deceptive, and thus morally wrong, states that “gram for gram, the refined sugar used in our chocolate pies is no more fattening than the sugars found in fruits and vegetables.” This is like trying to persuade someone that chocolate pies are not fattening by saying that, calorie for calorie, they are no more fattening than celery. True, but it would take a whole shopping cart full of celery to equal a chocolate pie’s worth of calories.
Advertiser: This advertisement cannot be called deceptive. It is, after all, true.
Which one of the following principles, if established would do most to support the consumer advocate’s position against the advertiser’s response?
(A) It is morally wrong to seek to persuade by use of deceptive statements.
(B) A true statement should be regarded as deceptive only if the person making the statement believes it to be false, and thus intends the people reading or hearing it to acquire a false belief.
(C) To make statements that impart only a small proportion of the information in one’s possession should not necessarily be regarded as deceptive.
(D) It is morally wrong to make a true statement in a manner that will deceive hearers or readers of the statement into believing that it is false.
(E) A true statement should be regarded as deceptive if it is made with the expectation that people hearing or reading the statement will draw a false conclusion from it.
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