I have no idea if this kind of post is even allowed in this subreddit but here goes nothing

So I have happened to notice something of late that I found a little suspicious and figured it was about time for me to talk about it.

Very often I will be browsing r/Movies and I will notice a post who’s title will go something like this “First image of [Character] in [Upcoming movie]”

And then a little while later I will see a post titled “New Poster for [Upcoming Movie] starring [Famous Actor]

Now there is nothing wrong with these types of posts. I think it leads to discussion and is perfectly acceptable for r/Movies. The problem is who is posting them.

I have found that 90% of posts formatted in these ways are by a single user:

u/BunyipPouch

So in my curiosity I look at this guys profile and what do I find? Well amidst these posters and first pics are seemingly random movies related articles from various culture magazines.

This man/woman/bot posts 3-4 times an hour many many times a day. As a relatively casual person on reddit that is insane to me.

My theory is that u/BunyipPouch with their 10,000,000 karma is being paid by ad agencies to post images and posters for upcoming movies to generate positive interest as well as hype. I think the seemingly random articles are cultivated by a basic program in an attempt for the account to appear legitimate. Maybe u/BunyipPouch just really likes movies...

Well while I see it possible I think it is unlikely. There are exactly two forms of content this use posts and they are the types of I have discussed.

You’re probably also wondering “but what about their comments?? Surely a bot wouldn’t be able to comment responses to posts or engage with other users convincingly.”

And I thought that too at one point.

Until I saw how much this user comments.

On the most recent example, a post about the academy caving to industry boycotts regarding the televising of certain awards, I saw at least three separate beginnings to comment threads by u/BunyipPouch all saying more or less the same thing (if I find them again I will link them)

That’s three different instances of the user directly commenting on the headline expressing the same sentiments.

My final conclusions given all of this information are thus:

1. I would gather that there is some sort of automated system that posts film and pop culture related articles to relevant subreddits.

2. Amidst the automated posts are paid and sponsored posts meant to generate discussion around an upcoming film as a form of guerrilla marketing. It isn’t much but it helps keep the upcoming film within the public conscious. The user also almost always includes a summary as well as the cast of any movie they are apparently promoting.

3. In an attempt to further appear as a normal user, a number of people behind the scenes are involved to comment and participate in a discussion. I imagine in the instance where I caught the person replying twice to the same post it was likely two different people not knowing they were using the account at the same time.

So that’s really it. These are just some things that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I know it isn’t malicious or anything, Movies are probably the one thing people don’t mind seeing ads for. I just think it’s interesting how transparent the attempt seems.

Of course I could also be wrong and u/BunyipPouch is a normal user and he’ll see this and think I’m just stalking him.

Let me know if anyone else has noticed this.