Critical Reasoning

Consumer advocate: Businesses are typically motivated primarily by the desire to make as great a profit as possible, and advertising helps businesses to achieve this goal. But it is clear that the motive of maximizing profits does not impel businesses to present accurate information in their advertisements. It follows that consumers should be skeptical of the claims made in advertisements.

Each of the following, if true, would strengthen the consumer advocate's argument EXCEPT:

(A) Businesses know that they can usually maximize their profits by using inaccurate information in their advertisements.
(B) Businesses have often included inaccurate information in their advertisements.
(C) Many consumers have a cynical attitude toward advertising.
(D) Those who create advertisements are less concerned with the accuracy than with the creativity of advertisements.
(E) The laws regulating truth in advertising are not applicable to many of the most common forms of inaccurate advertising.

OA is C

I am somewhat confused with C. Is C different from what author is concluding ?
Conclusion is :- Consumers should be skeptical of the claims made in the ads. The author is giving his opinion that consumers should do this in future.

And answer choice C is talking about the present state of consumers, not related to what they should do in the future.

Am I correct ? Or Are there other reasons to eliminate C. Please let me know. I will really appreciate if anyone can clear this doubt.

Thanks

vinni.k wrote:Consumer advocate: Businesses are typically motivated primarily by the desire to make as great a profit as possible, and advertising helps businesses to achieve this goal. But it is clear that the motive of maximizing profits does not impel businesses to present accurate information in their advertisements. It follows that consumers should be skeptical of the claims made in advertisements.

Each of the following, if true, would strengthen the consumer advocate's argument EXCEPT:

(A) Businesses know that they can usually maximize their profits by using inaccurate information in their advertisements.
(B) Businesses have often included inaccurate information in their advertisements.
(C) Many consumers have a cynical attitude toward advertising.
(D) Those who create advertisements are less concerned with the accuracy than with the creativity of advertisements.
(E) The laws regulating truth in advertising are not applicable to many of the most common forms of inaccurate advertising.

OA is C

I am somewhat confused with C. Is C different from what author is concluding ?
Conclusion is :- Consumers should be skeptical of the claims made in the ads. The author is giving his opinion that consumers should do this in future.

And answer choice C is talking about the present state of consumers, not related to what they should do in the future.

Am I correct ? Or Are there other reasons to eliminate C. Please let me know. I will really appreciate if anyone can clear this doubt.

Thanks

The argument: consumers should be skeptical of advertisements.
C: Many consumers have a cynical attitude toward advertising.

The fact that consumers are cynical sheds no light on whether consumers should be skeptical. Perhaps the cynicism is misplaced. It all comes down to whether the advertisements are likely to be false or misleading. Put another way, there's a difference between alleging that a group of people has a certain belief and claiming that this belief is justified. We care about the veracity of advertisements, not about what attitudes people already have about advertising.

David,

I think I got your point.

Thanks