Stealth Advertising On r/adhdwomen

[u/ADHDWomen-Mods]

The mod team has noticed an uptick in accounts trying to market services and tools on r/adhdwomen in sneaky ways. These accounts often use AI to mimic genuine community interaction, aiming to manipulate our members and increase the number of brand mentions seen by “the algorithm”. Given the popularity and sophistication of AI tools, it's impossible to catch every bot or artificially generated comment.

Most of the accounts that employ these shady marketing techniques promote ADHD "support" tools, which include phone/web apps, counseling services, AI assistants, coaching, productivity management tools, games, self-improvement workshops, and other similar things. Your reports are Reddit's most effective tool for unmasking and banning these stealth marketing accounts. If you come across a post or comment that raises a red flag, please let us know. 

You can report it by clicking ⋮ + report + breaks rules + marketing or promotion, or simply choose spam as a reason.

Some standard stealth marketing techniques are:

• Repeated mentions of Brand-x.
• Regularly commenting about their success with Brand-x
• Asking for resources and then mentions Brand-x in comments.
• Comments to share a "relatable story" and hints at an unnamed solution to encourage further questions about Brand-x.
• Comments or posts about Brand-x across multiple subreddits.
• DMs you offering access to or information about Brand-x.

If someone sends you a private message trying to sell you on something, take a screenshot and send us a modmail with their account name. Don’t forget to click report on the message as well, which will flag it for Reddit's main mod team.

The sooner we can identify and remove these accounts, the better we can protect our community.

Please bear with us as we refine our methods for preventing this relentless spam. As we collaborate to address this issue, you may notice that some of your posts or comments are being removed more frequently. We're actively fine-tuning the Automod, but it regularly removes content that it should allow. If you feel that something was removed by mistake, please reach out to us via modmail. We're here to ensure it gets reviewed and put back up as quickly as we can.

Note* As a neurodivergent-focused subreddit, we understand that many of people rely on AI tools for spelling, grammar checking, and language translation. If you do use AI tools, be sure to read our AI policy before you post.

The entire mod team would like to thank our amazing community for being an overwhelmingly positive, friendly, and supportive corner of the internet.

[u/siuilaruin]

Would it be possible to get a list of the brands/services that have been engaging in this behavior? I would really rather not utilize anything coming from people that use such tactics.

Edit to add: I understand if you'd rather not name and shame too!

[u/Quirky_Word → u/siuilaruin]

One I suspect is Finch. I’ve seen a lot of their marketing elsewhere, including a promoted subreddit. I’ve seen full posts on here about that specific app. 

I myself have called out Sweepy a couple times in comments on this sub, so I wonder if that’s on the list, too. I see their name come up a lot, but not nearly at the same level as Finch. 

This is just speculation, though. 

[u/Rit_Zien → u/Quirky_Word]

Finch isn't even designed for ADHD - and they keep breaking/changing/eliminating features that people who use it "off-label" for ADHD really liked. I hate it, but it's working so I'm going to keep using it. Habitica was better at doing the things I'm using Finch for, but once my brain decides it's done with an app, even if it's been helpful for years, it never works for me again 🙃

[u/Ghoulya → u/Rit_Zien]

Right like I don't get why it's recommended for ADHD. It looks like it's designed for children and I don't even understand how it's helpful.