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Comment by rexreed | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this extremely common honestly? Isn't this so common it has names like "astroturfing" and "growth hacking"? This so not black hat that it's basically just regular ol' hat.

Yeah creating fake grass roots support isn't particularly new, and I would venture that it's been around as long as there's been marketing.

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It is extremely common. These companies probably bought something that was described as something more benign and ethical.

And I totally understand. If you’re a small company you don’t have time to do further check-ins. They probably get you with a good pitch about influencer marketing for a niche area and that sounds nice enough to many to consider putting some money on it.

I feel it's unfortunate "growth hacking" took on this connotation (ie, "comparable to astroturfing / fraudulent by definition", given the need for a term to describe (genuine / above-board / white-hat) creative approaches to connecting your idea with a market. Reminiscent of "hacker:cracker" usage divide, more generally.

Yes. Reddit upvotes are dirt cheap and sites sell article spots all the time.

This happens in the real world too. IIRC, Stonyfield yogurt had their friends and family buy the product when it was newly on the shelf at groceries to make it look like it was selling well enough to get picked up permanently.

I read a couple of the tweets and some other comments, but I didn't realize until I reached your comment that they were talking about legit services using those marketing techniques! I thought they meant black hat services were trying to act legit by paying for publicity that would paint them that way...

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