I don't think communities having brands is marketing. That's just community groups: communities have in-jokes, memes, vulnerability, sharing, cultures. HN links

I don't think communities having brands is marketing. That's just community groups: communities have in-jokes, memes, vulnerability, sharing, cultures. HN links to that one dropbox comment. That isn't dropbox marketing or whatever that's just a self-effacing ingroup joke, only tangentially about the company. Marketing might hijack these groups to sell things, but I don't think just the act of memeing to be marketing or selling anything.