A year ago, Dietz Foods launched a yearlong advertising campaign for its canned tuna. Last year Dietz sold 12 million cans of tuna compared to the 10 million sold during the previous year, an increase directly attributable to new customers brought in by the campaign. Profits from the additional sales, however, were substantially less than the cost of the advertising campaign. Clearly, therefore, the campaign did nothing to further Dietz's economic interests.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
34. The conclusion is: the campaign did NOTHING to further Dietz’s economic interests.
If a campaign did SOMETHING to further Dietz's economic interests, then the conclusion is weakened. E) says that the campaign minimized the loss. That's SOMETHING!
B) on the other hand states that those NEWLY added buyers of the can were loyal customers to begin with. Therefore, it is likely, these customer bought the item out of blind loyalty rather than affected by the AD CAMPAIGN. In other words, the AD CAMPAIGN has no effect to lure NEW customers. B) strengthens the conclusion. The campaign did NOTHING. The phrase "as a result" does not suggest any causation between the two items. It only indicates correlation. For the record, those buyers might not have watched those AD.