Confirmation bias is the easiest marketing tactic in the world.

When I pursued my LLM in Brussels, I took a paid internship and then a job with an online media monitoring company.

I got the job because I spoke English, had a VISA, possessed very basic salary expectations (feed me, house me, pay for my alcohol), and knew what Twitter was (this was 20 years ago; stakes online were low.)

Each day, I constructed keyword chains (using the Boolean operators) in English, French, and Spanish.

And then I spent all day reading Mommy discussion boards.

My company’s clients, who will remain nameless pharmaceutical giants, wanted to know how mothers talked about their kids and their concerns for their kids. What words did moms use? How did they feel about doctors and healthcare in general? What were trending topics and what narratives did the moms construct around these topics? Who were mommy influencers? Why were these influencers popular? How did they communicate?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

At the time, the EU, which heavily regulates direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing (shocking to Americans, I know) had subtly changed the rules: companies could now educate (potential) patients about…