FUD is a sales tactic that uses fear, uncertainty, and doubt to discredit competitor products and appeal to emotion. It is used in various industries, including computers, cars, and politics, and can be both overt and subliminal. The defense against FUD is to accuse the opposing party of using fear appeals.
FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, a sales tactic used primarily to sell computers. The goal of FUD is to discredit competitor products by making a fallacious appeal to emotion, in this case fear. By producing fear, the seller is more likely to sell his product than to lose business to a competitive product.
Generally claims that can produce FUD are false claims. For example, the statement “No one has ever been fired for buying IBM” suggests that people who buy other products could be fired. However, FUD is now used not just by computer companies, but on a much larger scale.
For example, a car salesman might use FUD and cite crash test ratings of a competitor’s car to appeal to fear. Alternatively, he could report a single incident involving a friend of his who owned the “brand X car,” and the cursed thing was always in the shop. This way the seller doesn’t really have to report anything true. Alternatively, companies could simply imply that their car is the safest, an indirect path to FUD as it suggests that other cars are unsafe.
You also see the application of FUD in commercials for commonly used office services, such as UPS or Federal Express. Advertisements may include an annoyed employee losing his job for using the wrong postal service, again evoking the fear of unemployment, for making a wrong choice about office services. Meanwhile, the person using the “correct” service gets accolades from his bosses and is able to drink his latte in peace.
FUD is a pretty dirty tactic, as it tends to capitalize on the very real fears people have about things like job loss, unstable economy, traffic accidents, cyber disasters, and so on. Since most people want to fly from fear, the salesman or marketing company then presents the alternative that will keep the person “safe” from the evils of the world.
FUD has also been applied to politics. Both Democrats and Republicans have used it to great effect in political campaigns. Rob Reiner captured it perfectly in the movie The American President when the president makes a statement regarding his opponent that is good for two things: “to scare you and tell you whose fault it is.” In essence, Reiner is referring to the politics of fear or FUD.
The defense against FUD is usually an allegation that a candidate or opposing company is using FUD to gain respect. By accusing someone of using a fear appeal, one is implying that a person is not only fallacious, but is also committing dirty tactics that play on and exploit the fears of others. However, as it turns out to be effective, both overt and subliminal FUD can be expected to continue in a wide range of applications.
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