'[We're] making him think a huge ad campaign is live': Scorned marketing team dupes CEO into thinking he has his dream ad campaign

These people are marketing masterminds… or menaces, depending on who you ask. 

There's a long-running trope that people who work in marketing are duplicitous. If you've ever seen Mad Men or shows like it, you know the type of character we're talking about. The trope of the marketing exec who's out to fool everyone is hard to dispel. And stories like this certainly don't help that stereotype! 

U/DanAffid shared the story of what happened when they and their coworkers created the "CEO billboard." They seem pleased with the result: a billboard that caters to a single person. 

There are plenty of marketing strategies that work excellently. If you see an ad once, you might briefly notice it. If you see it a few times per week, you start to become familiar with the product, and possibly more inclined to buy it. And if you pass the same billboard every day as you're driving the kids to daycare or zipping along your daily commute, it'll probably stick in your head for some time. 

Check out this marketing person's malicious compliance story. Then, read about the first dates that went completely off the rails, like one first date who insisted that his date "order off the dollar menu."