Text Completion question help

GRE Verbal Problem Solving
1

Hello!
I had a bit of a problem trying to solve this question:
The current penchant for ___ a product by denigrating a rival, named in the advertisement by brand name, seems somewhat ___ : suppose the consumer remembers only the rival’s name?

(A) criticizing … inefficient
(B) touting … foolhardy
(C) enhancing … insipid
(D) evaluating … cumbersome
(E) flaunting … gullible

My logic was that the first blank echoes promoting or something similar. I got that from denigrating a rival, since if you are denigrating a rival, you are trying to promote your product. Based on that logic, I removed A, C and D.
The second blank I filled with something like contradicting/stupid. Since none of the choices matched that, I went with gullible or E. But B is the correct answer and I do not understand how and where we get that the strategy is bold or rash.
Thanks.

2

Maybe you need somewhat another angle to look at a first blank. Let’s tackle second blank first, since ‘current penchant’ and end statement ‘suppose the consumer remembers only the rival’s name?’ Implies that, efforts made to denigrate was thoughtless as in not with care. Only foolhardy make sense to this blank.