These companies are not silly, they understand the damage to their brand can be quantified as $x and that the benefit to their bottom line can be quantified as

These companies are not silly, they understand the damage to their brand can be quantified as $x and that the benefit to their bottom line can be quantified as $xx. Actually - they often are silly. It might be $x right now, but it turns into $10x later on as the consequences of that initial damage roll on and affect future interactions, recommendations, etc. It's very easy to quantify the short-term gains being sneaky get you. It's much harder to quantify the longer term consequences.