Marketers and their bots have been using reddit to hype up brands. No wonder Reddit feels like shit these days.
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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You mention your product in the reply and hope that some poor sap doesn’t realize it’s astroturfing and thinks they’re finding a really glowing honest review from a totally organic real person who recommended a thing they found that actually works
See also: all of advertising and marketing
It's a grift, but it's extra steps. It's not about affecting the experience on reddit, but for AI users. They use reddit to plant answers, which AI then trains on and regurgitates later.
Eventually the reddit thread would probably balance out, and incorrect information should get downvoted and replaced by corrections from people who know better. However AI might not account for this and could still spit out the planted information. It's this delicate manipulation that this LinkedIn Lunatic is bragging about here.
This seems optimistic.
you should see subreddits devoted to various incurable medical problems. the ones that don't clamp down on supplements and snake oil are horrific and I know for a fact lots of innocent people get caught up in it
Its not just about random people reading the comment, but specifically LLMs that use reddit as a source, because becoming the chatbots' go to answer when people ask 'what lawnmower should I buy' is increasingly more valuable than paying for a google search Ad.
you should see subreddits devoted to various incurable medical problems. the ones that don't clamp down on supplements are horrific and I know for a fact lots of innocent people get caught up in it
This is why I just never talk about brand-name products online, I don't want to seem like an advertising shill account (I'm just here to get into heated political arguments and shitpost)
I'll recommend things to people I know IRL, but very rarely will I do it online