If you’ve ever searched Reddit for a sex toy recommendation, you probably did it because you wanted to hear from actual people. Not an ad or a sponsored influencer, and certainly not a brand telling you that its latest toy is revolutionary. Just someone saying: ‘I bought this. Here’s what I thought.’
Brand obviously want to be the ones recommended. But when they don’t quite have the fan base for glowing organic mentions, that’s where ‘astroturfing’ comes in.
What Is Astroturfing?
Astroturfing is essentially fake grassroots marketing (geddit?!). Grassroots marketing grows naturally when real people talk about and recommend something. Astroturfing imitates that enthusiasm, making commercial promotion, often from bot accounts, look as though it has come organically from ordinary customers.
Once you know what it is, some of the sex toy discussions appearing on Reddit start to look very interesting.
Over the past few months I have noticed one particular product appearing again and again: the Lem from Hello Nancy. To be absolutely clear, this is not a discussion about whether it works or not, and I cannot prove that Hello Nancy itself is behind any of the Reddit accounts or posts discussed below.
What I can talk about is what I have seen with my own eyes.
What Does Astroturfing Look Like On Reddit?
Astroturfing does not normally look like an obvious advert, because that would rather defeat the point. It can look like a completely ordinary question: ‘Has anyone tried this?’, ‘Rose Toy or Lem?’ or ‘Satisfyer Pro 2 vs Lem?’ or even something wholly unrelated, with just the tiniest mention in there.
Sometimes it gains traction, and sometimes recommendations appear. Sometimes the original poster returns days or weeks later to update the post and explain that they bought the product and, remarkably, absolutely loved it.
Some examples…
- In February 2026, a Reddit user asked for a more premium alternative to a cheap Rose Toy. The original post complained that their Rose was becoming noisy and felt cheap. Later, it was updated to say they had bought the Lem from Hello Nancy and were delighted with it, specifically praising its soft silicone and how balanced it felt in the hand (totally normal person speak, there). Read the ‘high-end Rose Toy’ Reddit thread
- Another discussion asked whether the viral Rose Toy was genuinely good or simply overhyped. It was later edited to say that the poster and their partner had decided to buy from Hello Nancy instead. Of course they did! Read the Rose Toy discussion on Reddit
- A different post started with somebody complaining that their Rose Toy was painfully harsh. It was later edited to say they had bought the Lem, which was ‘miles better’, smoother and more sophisticated. Words I’d use to describe the Womanizer Next, maybe, but not a basic one-button lemon toy. Read the ‘Rose Toy is harsh’ Reddit thread
- Then another Satisfyer-versus-Lem discussion asked whether the Lem justified its higher price. The later update praised its construction and battery life. That is absolutely not my experience of comparing the two toys, but OK. Another Redditor commented that the subreddit was starting to look as though it was being targeted by a guerrilla advertising campaign. Read the Satisfyer vs Lem ‘premium’ thread
None of this confirms astroturfing; maybe all of these people genuinely love the product so much they just had to come back and tell everyone all about it. But when the same journey keeps appearing under different usernames and across different subreddits, it becomes difficult not to notice.
‘Premium materials’, ‘better ergonomics’, ‘smoother settings’, ‘quieter’, ‘better build quality’ and ‘better battery life’ are also remarkably convenient marketing messages to keep appearing independently. Having used a lemon-shaped toy, I can categorically tell you that the ergonomics are rubbish, and friends who’ve ended up being sucked (fnar) in by the ads and buying the Hello Nancy Lem aren’t convinced by the other claims either, compared to something like a Womanzier or LELO SONA 3.
While writing this article, I came across a great example – a post requesting completely generic advice.
A few posts later, Hello Nancy suddenly entered the conversation because ‘a friend had recommended it’.
Of course they did.
Why I Started Noticing It
I didn’t start paying attention to Hello Nancy because of Reddit, I started noticing them because I was absolutely fed up of seeing their adverts all over social media.
I had never been on the Hello Nancy website, searched for the brand or shown any particular interest in the Lem, yet the ads were there on every scroll. What put me off even more were some of the bold claims around the product, including suggestions that using it could help you sleep better or even reduce puffy eyes. Call me sceptical, but a sex toy cannot fix your puffy eyes, or fix perimenopausal sleep issues. It just can’t.
After a while, I became so aware of (and annoyed at) the brand that I started noticing it elsewhere too.
Suddenly the Lem seemed to be cropping up again and again in Reddit discussions, often in ways that felt oddly convenient.
The Strange Upvotes
I spend a frankly embarrassing amount of time on Reddit, particularly in sex toy communities, so I have a fairly good feel for how posts normally gain traction (or… don’t).
Recently I have watched multiple tangentially Lem-related posts gain a surprising number of upvotes almost immediately, while barely anybody actually engages with them. A post might reach around 15 upvotes with no other engagement at all.
Just yesterday, two posts I had been watching (both ostensibly general discussion posts with the teeniest Lem mention at the end) had the body content deleted, and not by the subreddit mods. Around the same time, their apparent scores dropped dramatically from roughly 15 upvotes to only a couple.
I cannot tell you why. Reddit does not publicly explain every account action, post removal or voting adjustment. I am therefore not claiming Reddit discovered fake accounts or removed fraudulent votes.
I’m not not saying that, either, and you might not not think it too once you see the types of repetitive comments Reddit removes on these threads…
It Isn’t Really Just About Reddit: Google Is The Ultimate Prize
The important thing to understand about Reddit astroturfing is that the target isn’t necessarily the relatively small number of people browsing a particular subreddit that day.
The much bigger prize is Google.
Google gives Reddit enormous visibility for searches where people want opinions, reviews and product recommendations, with Reddit threads appearing near the top of every search these days.
A Reddit thread asking something like ‘Rose Toy or Lem?’ can therefore reach far beyond Reddit itself. Once indexed, somebody searching for a Lem review, a Rose Toy alternative or a comparison with the Satisfyer Pro 2 may find that apparently organic conversation sitting prominently in Google.
You don’t need thousands of Redditors discussing your product. You need a page which looks sufficiently genuine and established to be indexed by Google, then found by potential customers months later.
That is also why suspicious voting behaviour interests me. I cannot prove that any votes I have seen were fake, and there is no evidence that Reddit upvotes directly improve Google rankings. But a question which immediately has 10 or 15 positive votes looks considerably more credible to a reader than one sitting at zero, and engagement can help content gain visibility on Reddit itself.
So when a commercial-looking question suddenly gains votes while attracting virtually no real conversation, it feels very much like they’re trying to game the system. Naughty.
Why Does Any Of This Matter?
Because people believe it. Someone reading a product page knows the company wants to sell them something. Sponsored influencer content should disclose the commercial relationship. You know that I receive many of the products I test for free and earn affiliate income if someone purchases through my links because I tell you.
But somebody arriving from Google onto Reddit and reading an apparently ordinary woman describing her experience may reasonably assume she has nothing to gain, and make purchases because of that perceived independence.
I saw an example today. A Lem buyer explained that they”d been influenced by the positive reviews and hype, but their actual experience was less than glowing. They found the one-button controls frustrating, disliked having to cycle through settings rather than simply reducing the intensity and found the button placement awkward enough to interfere with using the toy.
Those are not tiny details. A sex toy can have a perfectly capable motor and still be infuriating if you accidentally hit a pattern mid-orgasm and can’t immediately get back to where you were – and that’s the sort of information people go to Reddit hoping to find.
The Product Might Be Good. That Isn’t The Point
I have no interest in declaring that the Lem is rubbish simply because I find the Reddit activity surrounding it suspicious. Although I totally agree with the comments about one-button suction toys being disappointing, I’m sure plenty of genuine customers may love it.
The issue is whether somebody reading a recommendation understands who is recommending it and why.
Commercial relationships do not automatically invalidate an opinion. I make money from affiliate links myself and I like to think that my reviews are pretty useful and balanced. The important part is disclosure: Readers should be able to tell the difference between a genuine recommendation, an experienced review, and an advert from a bot account.
This Isn’t Just About Hello Nancy
It is also worth saying that Hello Nancy is neither the first nor apparently the worst example of this problem.
Brands including Bellessa and Cosara had caused enough problems with repeated promotional activity that – word has it – mere mentions of them are now simply banned in some communities.
When enough promotional accounts descend on a community, eventually the genuine customers lose too. A real person might sincerely want to recommend a product they love, only to discover that the brand name itself has become a spam trigger because too many marketers got there first.
What Can You Actually Do About It?
You don’t need to assume every Reddit recommendation is fake, but you probably should treat Reddit the same way you would any other source.
Be savvy. Check the account history. Look at whether the person talks about lots of different products or seems strangely obsessed with one brand. Read the replies, not just the original post, and pay attention to people describing very specific annoyances as well as people saying something is amazing.
If a post has loads of upvotes but almost no conversation, or an old question suddenly contains a suspiciously positive update that they just felt compelled to come back and share rather than creating a new post…take it with a pinch of salt.
Most importantly, don’t treat the first Reddit result on Google as proof that ‘real people love this’. It might be genuine. It might also be marketing that has successfully made itself look like word of mouth.
I can’t prove who is behind the Lem posts I’ve seen, and I’m not telling anyone not to buy the toy should they so desire.
What I am saying is that when apparently independent recommendations start following the same patterns, appearing across multiple subreddits and turning up prominently in Google, it’s worth asking who benefits from them.
And if you are looking for a clitoral suction toy, then my round up of the best clit suckers is pretty thorough – and does not include the £80 Lem.
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