[Razengan]

Popularity can be faked through marketing.

[TeMPOraL]

Popularity is created through marketing.

[seanmcdirmid]

Popularity can only be faked via shills and poll rigging. Perhaps you mean something else?

[buckminster]

You say that like marketing and shilling are two wholly distinct activities. Have you heard of Instagram?

[seanmcdirmid]

One is people pretending to like something or wrongly saying people like something. The other is people liking something for the wrong reasons. These are completely two different concepts.