Read the comments under the ad

On a Friday I read comments rather than posts.

Under a creator's post about a product, the comments arrive in two shapes, and almost never in a third.

The first shape is a question about the thing. Where to buy it. What it costs. Whether it works on dry skin. A woman tagging her sister in three words. It comes in Arabic and in English and the shape is identical in both.

The second shape is a question about the post. Whether it was paid for. Whether the product was sent. Whether the same recommendation was made about something else a month ago.

Which of the two fills the first twenty comments is the whole report on that piece of work. The first means a creator spent credibility they had and it held. The second means a brand borrowed a face, and the audience noticed the loan before the brand did.

In Saudi Arabia the second shape is more visible than anywhere else I work, because a creator needs a permit for paid work and the post carries a disclosure. I used to read the disclosure as the risk. It is a receipt. The audit it records was running long before any regulator asked for a label, and the label only moved the argument above the line, where the brand can see it.

None of that reaches the report I get. Reach, saves, a cost per engagement, and a sentiment score that files a hundred sceptical questions as neutral because not one of them contains an insult.

The permission belongs to the creator. It was given by people who chose to follow a particular person, and it was never extended to whoever bought the slot underneath. The comments are the only place it gets audited in public.