The following appeared as part of a campaign to sell advertising time on a local radio station to local businesses.
"The Cumquat Cafe began advertising on our local radio station this year and was delighted to see its business increase by 10 percent over last year’s totals. Their success shows you how you can use radio advertising to make your business more profitable.”

The radio station claims that advertising on it can make business more profitable, as evidence by the Cumquat Café which began advertising on the radio last this year and its business increase by 10 percent over last year’s totals. However, I do not find the advertisement well reasoned. Here is why.

First of all, the reasons increased the Cumquat Café’s business could have been anything from a significant upgrading of the Café’s menu, the improved quality of service to the general market conditions conductive to the upward movement in the café’s sales. To make the assumption more convincing, the radio station should provide more reliable evidence proving that the increase in Cumquat Café’s sales can be linked to the effects of the radio advertisement.

Furthermore, the promotional campaign lacks persuasive force because only one Café is mentioned to support its assumption. In order to convince business, the campaign should provide more concrete evidence that business improved profitability by advertising on the radio.

Finally, the campaign notes some relevant trends, but oversimplified the full range of the possibilities which account for the success of the Café’s sales. To fully evaluate the argument, we need to ask the following questions: What is the size of the radio station’s audience? Who usually tunes in to the radio station? What the purchasing power do the radio station’s listeners have? Unless the radio station provides more concrete answers to the above questions, the ability of the radio station to increase the profitability is doubtful.