The ad populum fallacy is telling people what they want to hear in order to ingratiate oneself to the audience. The speaker knows ahead of time what the crowd wants to hear, and he/she tells it to them whether he/she believes it or not. This is a favorite technique of demagogues; however, there are positive and negative versions of this fallacy.
Positive Approach: *see Family Guy video below.
Negative Example: "BUT, MOM, EVERYBODY HAS A NEW iPHONE! I NEEEEEED ONE!"
Four approaches:
Example: 75% of people like dogs more than cats; therefore, dogs are better than cats.
The Patriotic Approach or "Draping Oneself in the Flag"
Example: Mr. Jamie "America" Spagnolo makes amazing grilled cheese sandwiches. He shoots off red, white, and blue fireworks every Friday night and has a pet Bald Eagle named George "2nd Amendment" Lincoln. If you don't like his grilled cheese sandwich, must be a communist who hates America.
Example: Well, the wealthy, handsome, and intelligent people all agree with Mr. Spagnolo. Poor, unattractive, dumb people don't. Which group do you want to be part of?
The Christian Approach or "Covering Oneself in the Cross"
Example: Mr. Spagnolo would love to debate this with you, but, instead, he's going to go to church and pray for your obviously lost soul.
Example: You need to agree with me because God agrees with me. If you disagree with me, you disagree with God.
Example: "As a used car salesman, I always strategically place a Bible on the driver's seat of the car so the test driver has to move it before driving. This makes them trust me more."
Example: This car dealership's promotion unapologetically falls into the patriotic approach, too. Regardless of which subcategory, it's pandering via the ad populum fallacy and has nothing to do with whether the vehicle being purchased is a solid vehicle.
Example: We're obviously on the heavenly side...