> This seems like the social equivalent of when a brand becomes well known for having high-quality goods -- they then put their logo on lots-and-lots of super-low quality goods that people then buy to pretend they have high-quality goods.

I can't quite put my finger on why, but this suggests an alternate form of IPO is being reinvented, where the currency of issue was branded social capital, and actual cash is a kind of leveraged instrument instead of the primary medium of exchange.

I also feel like this might be a well known pattern in behavioral economics and I just don't know the proper name for it.