Hyperbole that makes money! (Entry 1+1)

Well, it's obvious and widely known that exaggeration often captures attention.

Question 1: Who needs to capture attention to make money?
Answer 1: Journalists!

When a customer throws glances at a wide range of newspapers, he is more likely to buy the one with the most interesting headline, with the uniquest topic or with a subject that seems intriguing. SO, if a journalist wants to sell his/her story, it should be captivating. Sometimes word play is used. A celebrity name may pop here or there on the front page. But frequently, to emphasize something, the news-person uses hyperbole in the title or headline. Here's an example. I was checking a web site that I oftentimes visit, and I saw an article named "British Spies Wanted To Turn Hitler Into A Woman". As weird as this title sounds, it did it's job, and led me to clicking the link that opens the aforementioned article. With further reading I found out that it was really just feeding him some extra estrogen so that he softens up. The text didn't support the heading.

But I guess that from the start I subconsciously knew that, hence I expected no organ transplantation or a complete make-over announced. Captions of this sort appear everywhere, and we are used to their boasting nature. As a matter of fact, even the title of this post is written in a way that should engage you into further reading. And if you're reading this, it has obviously worked.
This is an example 1 of hyperbole around us and how people (ab)use it.


Stay tuned (or as dictionaries say, stay into proper pitch... but that's metonymy, we'll leave that rhetoric device for another time)