[reaperman]

They could be paying a firm for generic astroturfing / publicity campaign. That PR firm could have HN as one of many communities they target by default. Walmart could be unaware and uncaring as to which communities, precisely, are targeted by the firm they hired for this. The PR firm might not put much effort into specifically tailoring their target communities for each and every campaign, but generally just follow a standard playbook, which might happen to include HN.

[justrealist]

HN literally does not register for PR firms.

[reaperman]

Categorical statements are generally easily disproven:

BMV is a PR company which won prdaily.com's 2023 award for "Best Use of Research/Surveys"[0] Their website[1] says:

> You also want to distribute and share the news on your announcement into popular communities for engineering talent, such as HackerNews.

Salient PR also targets HN[2]:

> Choose a team that can speak the same language as your audiences and create content that resonates. Look for demonstrated experience engaging developers across communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, HackerNews, and relevant podcasts.

Vidico's "Optimized Video Marketing Campaigns" also target HN:[3]

> Q: Which publishers do you reach out to? A: Our publishers are higher tier tech publications that include Techcrunch, Hackernews and FastCompany. We write your press release, and include high-quality media media assets such as the video we’ve produced for you and still photo assets.

Bizibl Marketing's "Content Distribution Playbook"[4] says:

> And embrace communities. Platforms such as Inbound, Reddit, HackerNews and niche-specific communities allow you to put your message amongst your audience. But be aware that whilst these communities may applaud and amplify a relevant and compelling message, they are likely to pull apart one that is irrelevant, unfavourable or unwelcome.

Relevance also offers PR services targeting HN[5]:

> Take a careful look at whatever had worked in the past and leverage different platforms like Reddit, Slashdot, HackerNews, BuzzSumo, GrowthHackers, Twitter, and Zest.

0: https://www.prdaily.com/awards/content-marketing-awards/2023...

1: https://beantownmv.com/how-to-get-press-coverage-for-your-st...

2: https://salientpr.com/developer

3: https://vidico.com/video-marketing/

4: https://bizibl.com/marketing/download/content-distribution-p...

5: https://www.relevance.com/captivate-your-target-audience-by-...