[Hacker29382]

Are you saying that influence either isn't sold or is spelled out in explicit terms when it is? Why do pharm reps take medical residents out to expensive dinners in nice parts of town (pre-covid), are they just nice people?

[astrange]

Giving someone a nice dinner isn’t giving them a lot of money, though. You get influence by not paying people enough that they can leave, but making it seem like you might in the future.

And yes, most marketing spending is pointless, and that’s just another kind of marketing.