The more you think of it, the more it seems to be totally expected. It's the advertising industry we're talking about. They're not exactly a paragon of honesty. On the contrary, I suspect everyone tries to bullshit everyone else. The few observations I made from working next to people in marketing & advertising supports that viewpoint.

EDIT: reminds me of that one story about A/B testing, which pretty much directly told us how adtech companies are bullshitting their own customers.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10872359

I highlighted the more interesting parts back then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10873226.

The rumor is that both the Cruz campaign and the Trump campaign found Cambridge Analytics' products to not work as advertised.

The SNP had an introduction to them, and the delegate reported back exactly that: not trustworthy and not a good idea to work with.