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Comment by thisisdallas | Hacker News Reader

" It's because they're trying to make people believe Xbox One is more popular than it really is"

Ignoring the fact that the Xbox One has been selling great, isn't that more or less the point of marketing? Make a product seem popular, generate buzz, make money?

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In the dim and distant past marketing was about telling people why your product was good, not convincing them it's popular.

You may want to let the diamond people know about that... exactly how far in the past are we going... I'm pretty sure marketing has always been about moving product for the lowest cost possible.

The whole point is kinda for people to review Xbox one things, i.e. tell them about things that are good. It's not about trying to convince people it's popular.

And then they realized how herd mentality works and how it's much more profitable and efficient then actually making people think. In this, marketing is the ultimate exploiter of our flaws...

It seems like you don't know much about marketing, so best refrain to make such statements.

You really see no problem with astroturfing? (Or is that your job? :-) )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

Edit: I am a bit shocked to see so many people (well, accounts) arguing astroturfing is OK, it used to be despised and big news when Microsoft did it then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing#Incidents I will assume that is more astroturfing. Otherwise, goodbye Internet as an information source....

Perhaps the poster is capable of evaluating products on their own, or paying for independent reviews.

If you're dumb enough to believe 'free' advice you pretty much deserve what you get. Remember when the service is free, the product is you.

Our entire society is astroturfed whats possibly more sad is that people can get genuinely caught up in these campaigns and start spreading them for free.

I did not say I do not have a problem with the marketing agreement Microsoft has set up. Be that as it may, I also understand this type of marketing is not solely taken advantage of by Microsoft. I don't anyone is arguing it's ok. People are pointing out that Microsoft is by no means the first company to take advantage of this type of marketing.

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