This used to be a monthly feature on the old, now defunct, Ethics Scoreboard. I haven’t done many here: the last one was—let’s see—appeared in December 2024! Yet the fake demonstration site “Crowds on Demand” is an easy choice. It’s business is lying by proxy.
“Crowds on Demand is your home for impactful advocacy campaigns, demonstrations, PR stunts, crowds for hire and corporate events. Services available nationwide,” we are told. Ah. Impactful advocacy campaigns that don’t have as many advocates as they pretend to have. Terrific.
“Are you looking to create a buzz anywhere in the United States? At Crowds on Demand, we provide our clients with impactful advocacy campaigns and events. We are best known for organizing passionate demonstrations, rallies, flash-mobs, corporate PR events, and light-hearted events such as paparazzi, brand ambassadors, and PR stunts. We also have virtual capabilities including letter-writing, social proof, and phone-banking campaigns. We can create turn-key advocacy groups complete with qualified passionate leaders to staff them all on relatively short notice.”
All lies. And when your mob for hire starts a riot, “Crowds on Demand” will send in fake National Guard members in to beat them up and get sympathy for your group! OK, I made that up. But it wouldn’t surprise me. “Crowds on Demand came under fire from supporters of President Donald Trump for allegedly supplying paid protesters for the anti-ICE and “No Kings” protests that cropped up across the nation,” I am reading. More recently, the company’s CEO claimed he was offered $20 million to recruit people to participate in the planned anti-Trump protests set to take place tomorrow. Adam Swart, CEO of Crowds on Demand, told the host that organizers of the planned “Good Trouble Lives On” protests scheduled for Thursday tried to hire his company to bolster the size of the demonstration. His reason was that he didn’t think the protests would be effective, and it would make his company look bad.
But you see, the company is bad, whether it promotes that fraudulent demonstration or another one.
Ethics Alarms 
…until David Litt learns his lesson for real and stops reading garbage like this.
Seems like this comment went to wrong post.
It did. Enter it under the right post, and I’ll delete the other one.
Typos: “depend to have” and “bat them up”.
I was initially wondering if this was just an outrage-bait site like the “Bonsai kittens” and others that used to be all the rage, but it seems they’re for real. Of course their mere existence means virtually every “large-turnout” crowd is suspect now.
1. Thanks.
2. Fixed.
3. %^$#@!
I’m really curious now how many people $20 million was supposed to buy, and for how long…. For those hoping to make a smallish crowd seem much larger, seems like AI generated images and a cabal of influencers to make the fake images go viral would be much more cost effective! Fingers crossed the source of the $20 million offer is leaked ASAP.
Hmm… apparently COD has a rival in the business: an outfit called Demand Protest. I actually think their website might edge out COD for Unethical Website of the month.
Under the heading “Unassailable Authenticity”:
“We are strategists mobilizing millennials across the globe with seeded audiences and desirable messages. With absolute discretion a top priority, our operatives create convincing scenes that become the building blocks of massive movements. When you need the appearance of outrage, we are able to deliver it at scale while keeping your reputation intact.
[what really slays for me here is “the appearance of outrage” as evidence of “unassailable authenticity”]
And… it gets worse! Under “Deniability”
“By taking every precaution, keeping our clients secret, and only hiring the best individuals, we can ensure that all actions will appear genuine to media and public observers.
Yup, that’s worse!!!
That reminds me of one of the final scenes from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
“Who is going to be taking care of the Ark?”
“There are Top Men assigned to that, Dr. Jones.’
“So who, exactly?”
“Top Men.”
And then we cut to a warehouse worker wheeling the Ark into Aisle 37, Rack 16, Bay F.