Red herring

A red herring is a statement or question that distracts from the issue at hand by introducing irrelevant information. The person introducing the red herring hopes to "win" by shifting the debate to more favorable ground.

As such, the red herring is a logical fallacy. It is not an argument, but is rather an attempt to avoid a position that is harder to defend. This fallacy is closely associated with the ignoratio elenchi informal fallacy.

One should not permit the red herring to draw one off the subject. Instead one should point out the irrelevancy and get back to the question at issue.