The solution
On 7 March 2023 Antonio Attolini Murra, a member of Mexico's ruling party with more than 280,000 followers, quote-tweeted Fachos.mx — an apparel brand named after Spanish-language slang for 'fascist' that sells shirts with slogans like 'It's a beautiful day to smash feminazism' and a red 'Make Mexico Great Again' cap. His angry post was seen by over 100,000 people within 24 hours and drew more than 500 replies, most of them thanking him for introducing them to the brand. 'I know I'm part of Twitter's algorithm,' Attolini told Rest of World.
That reaction is the strategy. Founder and CEO Carlos Leal, a right-wing local politician, seeds deliberately offensive posts to goad high-profile critics into amplifying them, counting on users' tendency to promote a brand they viscerally oppose. He told Rest of World the episode raised visits 300 percent and sales 20 percent, and that followers grew from 50–100 a month before Musk's October 2022 takeover to about 800 in the past month as moderation loosened. He says Meta platforms shadow-ban terms like 'abortion'; Meta says it acts on community guidelines, not individual words.
The structure matters as much as the bait. Unlike merch tied to an ideology the seller already champions, such as Black Rifle Coffee's Trump-adjacent positioning, Fachos seeks engagement from opponents rather than supporters. And as a private business rather than a candidate, Leal sits outside the restrictions on social-media campaigning the Mexican government is still only discussing, as digital-rights lawyer Karla Prudencio of R3D explained. Political communications consultant Pepe Galaviz reduced the playbook to the old adage: what matters is that people are talking about you, good or bad.
What it achieved
Market to your enemies: bait prominent opponents into quote-tweeting the brand, and their outrage does the distribution a hated brand could never buy.
Why it worked
Opponents with large followings are reliable amplifiers: outrage compels a quote-tweet.
Post-Musk Twitter's lax moderation lets the bait stand, while Meta's rules push Leal's messaging off Facebook and Instagram.
Being a private businessman keeps the brand outside Mexico's not-yet-regulated campaign activity on social media.
Attolini's own reply section proved the trap: most respondents thanked him for the free publicity.
What can be applied
Criticism is a distribution channel when your brand thrives on notoriety: an enemy with a big audience is worth more than an ally with a small one — as long as the platform lets the bait stand.
Aftermath
Leal kept leaning into the channel, running paid campaigns of provocative messages on Twitter and reporting about 800 new followers in one month against 50–100 before Musk's takeover. UNAM Civic Innovation Lab researcher Rafael Morales warned that growing criticism of Twitter's permissiveness was itself amplifying hate-spreading discourse, and Prudencio summed up the trap: 'when you say you hate hate-speech, you become a magnifier of the thing you hate.'
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE