Hi, Earthman.   Thanks so much for reinforcing the stereotype of the self-serving, lowest-common-denominator marketing/PR hack.  You do it with "It is often a good strategy to upvote your comment, no matter how tawdry it may look."  Gotcha. 

Tht "good strategy" is bald-faced dishonesty.  One of the (many) things that used to P*** me off during my career was the lack of integrity around poll results, stats of all kinds.  My job was to inform, and through it, persuade--not to knowingly falsify reality.    

(Creative Director, broadcasting; Pres. Marketing/PR firm; author since 1969)