Many advertisements use fallacies to boost their effectiveness and impact on readers and the audience.

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Many advertisements use fallacies to boost their effectiveness and impact on readers and the audience. A fallacy is defined as misleading content that influences a reader to buy a product.

To a larger extent, advertisements use fallacies such as gift pitches, shills and testimonials. However, to a smaller extent, advertisements use other forms of psychological mechanisms that do not involve fallacies, such as persuasion psychology.

Gift pitches are used to attract customers with the prospect of receiving an additional free gift, making them feel that they are gaining from the purchase. For example, a Baygon advertisement claims that customers can win a hundred times of what they spend on Baygon, making readers feel that they gain rather than spend by buying this brand. It also encourages customers to start "winning" instead of "buying", adding to the psychological effect that they are gaining from this promotion. However, the seller or manufacturer may not be in actual fact giving a free gift. He may have simply increased the selling price so that his profits can cover the cost of the "gift". However, gift pitches are very attractive as they mislead customers into thinking that they are getting something for nothing.