worst case is still best case, nice

Author

Kaeya Majmundar
August 25, 2025

Today, 90% of respondents (27 out of 30) classified as “hostile marketers”, those who, for weeks, have insisted with “11/10” confidence that #ad alone prevents consumer deception (screenshot below) passed through our second-to-last blind test in our flagship 7-week research study.

  • July 28 → Study kickoff

  • Aug 25 → Final blind test survey collection

  • Aug 26 → Final blind test interviews begin

  • Sept 1–13 → Final analysis window

  • Sept 14 → Findings published

  • Sept 15 → Conference presentations begin

When asked to respond as average consumers (without realizing the framing had shifted), they flipped. They chose disclosure facts over hashtags, and used the term “disclosure facts” in their own reasoning (also without ever seeing any of our labeling, visuals, or branding that could could introduce bias).

Several respondents explicitly wrote “disclosure facts,” while many others echoed its logic (cost transparency, authenticity, fatigue with hashtags) unprompted and without descriptor cues.

Next Step: final round of interviews → begins tomorrow, August 26, 2025, 4 interviews scheduled for tomorrow.

Today, I saw sufficient data showing that the most hostile segment not only used our term (“disclosure facts”) but also chose it over their own primary terminology and methodology (and the dominant terminology in the market).

This directly validated one of my favorite innovation frameworks called “languaging” drawn from Category Pirates (See Article: How to Use Languaging to Name, Frame, and Claim Your Category).

Languaging is the strategic use of words to change thinking. Legendary category designers use it to frame the new against the old:

  • Henry Ford called the first vehicle a “horseless carriage,” not a faster horse

  • Sara Blakely invented “Spanx,” not better shapewear

  • We go to “brunch,” not a late breakfast

When done well, customers start using the language you seeded. They don’t see you as better. They see you as different.

Today, the data revealed that exact outcome: the terminology we seeded “Disclosure Facts” is being pulled into cultural nomenclature by the most resistant segment of the market itself.

Marketers are beginning to lean into the need for “disclosure facts”, filling the gap for contextual clarity that today’s consumers expect in sponsored influencer content, not just the binary clarity that something is an ad (#ad).

🛑 BINARY CLARITY → CONTEXTUAL CLARITY IS NOT AN INCREMENTAL UPGRADE. IT’S A CATEGORY SHIFT 🛑

1. We’re reframing the entire disclosure problem

  • Old world: hashtags = binary clarity (this is an ad / not an ad).

  • New world: Disclosure Facts = contextual clarity (what the ad relationship actually is).

    • That’s not an incremental improvement because it’s showing the market is presently solving the wrong problem.

2. We’ve got hostile validation

  • It’s not just friendly people agreeing.

  • We’ve documented “hostile marketers” with 11/10 confidence in #ad flipping when forced into consumer shoes. That’s rare, powerful proof.

At this point, the last key decision for the day (before I go veg out rewatching one of my favorite TV shows, Halt and Catch Fire, while eating my favorite candy, Dulces Vero Rellerindos) became clear: run the cost–benefit analysis on buying the dot-com domain and secure the naming rights if sensible.

Quick Cost–Benefit Analysis

  • Cost: $4,500 to buy disclosure facts dot com

  • Benefit: Category-defining language validated and beginning to naturally spread; domain secures naming rights at the moment of cultural adoption.

    • In the future: check my disclosure facts; show me the disclosure facts etc.

  • Analysis: Worst case outcome is still best case category creation, nice.

    • BEST CASE: We win both culturally and legally (get the trademark)

    • BASE CASE: $4,500 is lost but that’s trivial compared to the upside

    • WORST CASE: The phrase goes generic (can’t trademark it / own it) → which paradoxically means we already won cultural adoption

  • Executive decision: Buy disclosure facts dot com

Receipt:

Also secured on socials: @disclosurefacts

Kaeya