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I'd argue that we're already being targeted by very carefully placed comments positively supporting products/services, and responses on negative articles by "le

• asdff 4y ago
  Of course, both on HN and every single popular website out there. Think of how many people use reddit for "human" opinions. Marketing aren't idiots, they know people type "myquery site:reddit.com" for a lot of things these days. As a marketer, you can go to some niche subreddit, ask "I need product for y what can I do" or something along those lines, then take your string of 20 bot accounts to say "Use X" and upvote those posts. It wouldn't be too long before you've snowballed this into THE product anyone on the subreddit recommends for anyone. Maybe you've even paid a mod to put it in the sidebar. Maybe you are the mod! You end up capturing the people who think qvc is for idiots just as well as the qvc watchers.
• coffeebeqn 4y ago
  And even if you’re not directly, maybe a database provider has been bombarding your friend or coworker with ads for weeks and now they suddenly recommend that platform to you because it’s been seared into their memory