Transfer

Transfer:

In this technique, an attempt is made to transfer the prestige of a positive symbol to a person or an idea.

For example, using the American flag as a backdrop for a political event makes the implication that the event is patriotic in the best interest of the U.S. This fallacy/technique appeals to people's respect or reverence of symbols, such as a politician standing in front of an American flag.

There is also a good deal of transfer value in children, pets, or good-looking models.

The Institute for Propaganda Analysis has argued that, when confronted with the transfer device, we should ask ourselves the following questions:
 

• In the most simple and concrete terms, what is the proposal of the speaker?
• What is the meaning of the the thing from which the propagandist is seeking to transfer authority, sanction, and prestige?
• Is there any legitimate connection between the proposal of the propagandist and the revered thing, person or institution?
• Leaving the propagandistic trick out of the picture, what are the merits of the proposal viewed alone? 

Examples:
 

Visual Images:
  

• Cuddle Cat 
• Maddie's Coloboma ("Referred to as the "mark of Madeleine" the blemish on the four-year-old's right eye has played a key part in the campaign to highlight her disappearance, emphasised in posters and videos.")