Tim Watkins, energy-based economics writer from the UK, had some interesting observations about this in his blog today. Scroll down to the third/final subheading, "Advertising doesn't work that way".
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2024/06/07/d-day-dummies/
Along the same lines, let's not forget L. Ron Hubbard, who founded Scientology some years after telling a sci-fi writers' convention that starting an actual cult would be a great way to make far more money off science fiction than just by writing it.