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Pre-IPO Reddit lets ads be dressed up as promoted user posts
(www.theregister.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
703 points (100.0% liked)
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Here is what one of these ads looks like:
https://www.reddit.com/u/PhillyCanada/s/O52X2oGf5V
It does not appear to be labeled as an ad on the Reddit mobile app.
This is how it's looks. No notification anywhere that is an ad post.
Jesus Christ, 1.5k upvotes on an ad. I know it didn’t say it explicitly but it does read very much like an ad
What are the chances the upvotes are fake though?
100% chance
Reddit would not let actual sentiment be shown, which is part of why the comments are locked (archived). If you're an advertiser they'll bend over backwards to please you. Guaranteed.
5 years ago people were down voting ads to oblivion. Now? They've got controls for that.
Oh man I miss when down voting an ad actually worked. That was such a funny movement for a second before they fixed that.
But yeah all those up ones are definitely fake and just a way to make it feel more real. The Jesus ads still don't show any up otes since they aren't paying for that feature I guess.
Pretty sure the votes don't work on the ads. Why would they, every ad would get down voted into oblivion and not show up on people's feeds. It reminds me of the fake comments on Facebook ads. "Pre-ordered my shwami blankets, can't wait!"
Yeah this is really scary. Maybe the golden thing on the top right is supposed to be the marking? But this is clearly not clearly marked. Should be easy to sack in a court.
This may be on purpose though. They communicate to their future shareholders that they will do everything - legal and illegal - to make profit and pay dividends.
I think that's the icon for archived posts, not ads marking.
🤢
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but this referenced ad post is over a year old. There's been "organic" guerilla marketing by advertisers on Reddit for almost a decade now. How is this relevant to the recent changes?
The context is in the article posted. This was one of the early experiments for the new ad platform. Looks like they did some simple test by coordinating things manually, then once they validated the concept, they spent the year building out a platform and interface for advertisers.
Ahhh I had a bit of a, didn't read the article, moment and that was the missing context for me. I appreciate you clarifying!
Why are there so many comments in the thread going "Omg great ad/marketing idea!!", that's so weird...
I wonder if a lot of that is astroturfing.
even lemmy has astroturfing. i guarantee reddit's push to tighten API usage etc was partially to ensure only paid / approved astroturfing was possible
Lemmy has astroturfing? Where??? The Linux bros? They just seem like they REALLY love Linux (and good for them, everyone needs hobbies).
Wtf is up with the comments... They're all congratulating the marketing to for a good campaign? Saying they're buying the shit.
100% Reddit astroturfing. It's so unnatural
It's gone now, on www. and old. via browser. "Page not found" with a pic of that snoo crying under a hot sun because he bought the pre-IPO shares, lol.